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Why it works: Sumac and mint share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 39 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (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 epicurious. 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. Sumac + minttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,998 recipes

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

  3. Pomegranate + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Sumac + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together71 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the sumac

The recipe marks sumac as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, pomegranate, garlic, white wine, mint, olive, pita bread):

  1. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Peppermintbetter flavor fit
  4. Sumacthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, pomegranate, garlic, white wine, mint, olive, pita bread. 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).