Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,040 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, 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 →
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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Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,040 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together23,449 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Olive + parmesan cheesetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,076 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Olive + peastop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,778 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).
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Olive + cheesetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,530 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the garlic
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, olive, peas, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, cheese):
- Basilbetter flavor fit
- Oreganoabout as good a flavor fit
- Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
- Garlicthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, olive, peas, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, cheese. 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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