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Yam Smoothie

"This smoothie is a favorite in my family and is quick and easy to make. You could also use a large can of yams in place of cooking the fresh ones."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Yam and sugar work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 73 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep5 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (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. Peel the yams and cut them into small cubes.

  2. Place the yam cubes in a pot of boiling water and simmer for about 10 minutes, until a fork slides in easily.

  3. Drain the yams and let them cool completely, or chill them in the refridgerator until cold.

  4. Add the cooled yams, vanilla yogurt, milk, sliced banana, white sugar and ice cubes to a blender.

  5. Blend on high until completely smooth and frothy, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.

  6. Taste the smoothie and blend again briefly if the sugar needs to be dissolved further.

  7. Pour into glasses and serve right away while cold.

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. Yam + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Vanilla + bananatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Yogurt + bananatop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together508 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Vanilla and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (yam, vanilla, yogurt, milk, sugar):

  1. Coconutabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Bananathe original
  3. Pineappleabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Figabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against yam, vanilla, yogurt, milk, 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).