Name: Watercress Salad with Port-Braised Figs and Pickled Onions
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 medium-size red onion, thinly sliced (about 2 cups); 1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar; 1 teaspoon sugar; 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1/8 teaspoon sugar; 1/4 cup grapeseed oil or vegetable oil; 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 1 750-ml bottle ruby Port; 1 pound dried black Mission figs, stems removed, figs halved; 3 bunches watercress, thick stems removed (about 8 cups); 6 heads of Belgian endive, trimmed, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices

Why it works: Onion and watercress work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 533 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

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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.

Onion + watercresstop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together533 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Champagne + red winetop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together7 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Red wine + vinegartop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together569 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Olive + vinegartop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together10,843 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Olive + red winetop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,239 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

Watercress Salad with Port-Braised Figs and Pickled Onions

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Ingredients

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The flavor team