Why it works: Coconut and avocado share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 73 recipes mention both. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat, tree nuts (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.
Toast the levain bread slices until golden and crisp, about 3 minutes total in a toaster or under a broiler.
Brush one side of each hot toast with the virgin coconut oil while it is still warm, so it melts into the bread.
Mash the avocado halves in a bowl with the grated garlic, orange zest and sea salt until mostly smooth, keeping some texture.
Spread the avocado mixture thickly over the oiled toasts, covering the bread edge to edge.
Scatter the chopped toasted macadamia nuts, slivered scallions and squash blossom chiffonade over the avocado.
Drizzle each tartine lightly with extra-virgin olive oil and add a little more salt to taste before serving right away.
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.
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Coconut + avocadotop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together73 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Macadamia nut + coconuttop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together84 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together23,449 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Avocado + olivetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,376 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Orange + olivetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the macadamia nut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, orange, bread, coconut, avocado, olive):
- Chickpeabetter flavor fit
- Peanutbetter flavor fit
- Beansbetter flavor fit
- Macadamia nutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, orange, bread, coconut, avocado, olive. 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).
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