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Lebanese Donair

"This is a Lebanese donair recipe, a traditional dish made with seasoned meat and tahini sauce that's enjoyed in many parts of the Middle East."

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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,536 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

7 servings
Prep30 min
Cook50 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,299 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + cardamomtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together405 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Allspice + cardamomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together137 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red wine, vinegar, olive, lemon, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper):

  1. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, vinegar, olive, lemon, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper. 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).