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The Avocado, "aguacate," or Alligator Pear

Avocado halves seasoned with salt, pepper, cinnamon, mustard, vinegar, and oil, chilled before serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Avocado and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 234 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

The Avocado, "aguacate," or Alligator Pear

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Halve the avocados and cut shallow grooves in the flesh.

  2. Sprinkle salt, red pepper, and cinnamon over the avocado halves.

  3. Pour mustard, vinegar, and oil into the halves.

Chill and serve

  1. Place a piece of ice on top and chill on ice before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Avocado + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Avocado + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Avocados
Provide the creamy flesh that forms the base of the dish.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that contrasts with the rich avocado.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the fat.
Oil
Adds fat that carries the spices and gives a smooth mouthfeel.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (avocado, pepper, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against avocado, pepper, mustard, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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