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Pairing

Shiitake + Yam

Promising but untested: they share 209 flavor molecules (strong aroma overlap), yet only 3 recipes use both. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikestrong
Cooked together3 recipes
Ranktop 3% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Shiitake Yam
26shiitake only 209shared 10yam only Shiitake · 235 Yam · 219
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do shiitake and yam go together?

Possibly. 3 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 209 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 3% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

Almost everything yam carries, shiitake has too: 209 of yam's 219 flavor molecules also occur in shiitake. Among the shared key aromas are coumarin (sweet, hay) and 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

What each one brings

shiitake

The sulfurous side. Sulfurous notes make up 6% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 4% for yam. It carries 26 molecules yam doesn't have.

yam

The tartness. Sour notes make up 20% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 16% for shiitake. It carries 10 molecules shiitake doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Chanterelle: the best fit for both, top 1% of pairs with shiitake, top 3% with yam.
  • Kale: top 1% of pairs with shiitake, top 1% with yam.
  • Welsh onion: top 1% of pairs with shiitake, top 1% with yam.
  • Butternut squash: top 3% of pairs with shiitake, top 1% with yam.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with shiitake and yam

We have no browsable recipe that lists both shiitake and yam. With this much shared aroma, it is the kind of novel pairing worth testing.

Can you swap one for the other?

Fairly well, for flavor. Each carries most of the other's flavor molecules (89% of shiitake's and 95% of yam's are shared). This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 209 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 26 only in shiitake and the 10 only in yam.

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Shiitake and yam questions

Do shiitake and yam go together?

Promising but untested: they share 209 flavor molecules (strong aroma overlap), yet only 3 recipes use both. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs.

Why do shiitake and yam taste good together?

Almost everything yam carries, shiitake has too: 209 of yam's 219 flavor molecules also occur in shiitake. Among the shared key aromas are coumarin (sweet, hay) and 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

What goes with shiitake and yam?

Chanterelle is the best third ingredient: top 1% of pairs with shiitake and top 3% with yam. Kale and welsh onion also fit both.

Can I use yam instead of shiitake?

Fairly well, for flavor. Each carries most of the other's flavor molecules (89% of shiitake's and 95% of yam's are shared). This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

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2

Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs

Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Shiitake vs Yam. https://compkitchen.com/compare/shiitake-vs-yam. Accessed 2026-11-04.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_shiitake_vs_yam_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Shiitake vs Yam},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/shiitake-vs-yam},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.