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Apple Walnut Salad

"Apples, walnuts, and cranberries in a creamy sauce make an excellent side dish for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,051 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

8 - 1/2 cup servings
Prep20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Peel, core and chop the apples into bite-sized pieces, then place them in a large bowl.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the softened cream cheese until smooth, then mix in the yogurt, brown sugar, ground cinnamon and vanilla until fully combined.

  3. Fold the cream cheese mixture into the chopped apples until every piece is evenly coated.

  4. Add the 1 1/2 cups of chopped walnuts and the dried cranberries, folding gently to distribute them through the salad.

  5. Spoon the salad into serving dishes or a bowl. Sprinkle the reserved 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts over the top.

  6. Chill the salad in the refrigerator until ready to serve, if you prefer it cold.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Apple + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,051 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Cinnamon + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Cinnamon + appletop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Cream cheese + yogurttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together873 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs