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Tiramisù

Various stories surround the origin of tiramisù, some of them off-color. Everyone agrees, however, that these ladyfingers, soaked in espresso and rum (hence the name, which means “pick-me-up”), layered in mascarpone and cream and dusted with cocoa, are as decadent as dessert can get. Ladyfingers—slender sponge cakes that are as long as a finger—are available in many bakeries.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 727 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8.

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (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 williamssonoma. 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. Rum + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together727 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + cocoa powdertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Cream + cocoa powdertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together825 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla 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