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Apple-Cranberry Salad

"Great salad you can serve on the side of a main dish or add roasted chicken and have as a meal! Chopped Belgian endive and radicchio can be substituted for the baby greens if you prefer a more exotic twist on salad recipes."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 648 recipes mention both. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep25 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. Whisk the stone-ground mustard and balsamic vinegar together in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until the dressing is smooth and slightly thickened.

  2. Toast the chopped walnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring often, until fragrant. Transfer to a plate to cool.

  3. Dice the apple and pear into small, even pieces. Toss them in a little of the dressing so they do not brown.

  4. Place the mixed baby greens in a large salad bowl. Add the diced apple, pear, dried cranberries and crumbled blue cheese.

  5. Pour the remaining dressing over the salad and toss gently until the greens are evenly coated.

  6. Scatter the toasted walnuts over the top and serve right away.

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 + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together648 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Pear + blue cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Apple + blue cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Olive + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Mustard and vinegar share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, olive, apple, pear, blue cheese, walnut):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Lettucebetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, olive, apple, pear, blue cheese, walnut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).