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Cranberry-Almond Vinaigrette

"I got the idea for this dressing from my love for Post Cranberry and Almond Cereal - I thought it was a great flavor combination. I like this dressing over a mixed green salad, potato salad (yes, it actually works) and even grilled salmon or warm roast turkey breast and glazed ham steaks at Christmas. I really love the color of this dressing - whatever it touches looks so pretty."

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Why it works: Cranberry and almond share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 41 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓

The recipe

1 cup
Prep15 min

Ingredients

Contains: 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. Finely chop the dried cranberries, shallot and parsley if not already chopped.

  2. In a jar or bowl, whisk the cranberry juice, lemon juice, sugar, salt, garlic powder, crushed red pepper flakes and ground almonds until the sugar and salt dissolve.

  3. Stir in the chopped dried cranberries, shallot and parsley.

  4. Slowly whisk in the vegetable oil until the dressing looks slightly thickened and emulsified.

  5. Taste and adjust with more salt or sugar as needed.

  6. Let stand 10 minutes so the flavors meld, then whisk again before serving. Cover and refrigerate if not using within a day.

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. Cranberry + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,718 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cranberry, lemon, shallot, parsley, almond, pepper, sugar):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  3. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cranberry, lemon, shallot, parsley, almond, pepper, sugar. 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).