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Summer Squash Gratin with Salsa Verde

For someone who has, at best, only moderate interest in eating all things zucchini and summer squash, this tell different story. I mean, how about a , some , or ? Maybe a , or my is more your speed? The 40-plus recipes from previous summers would make you think I jump for joy when the inevitable August glut of green and yellow piles at the Greenmarkets; instead, I approach them warily.

By smittenkitchen · From Open Recipes · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,225 recipes mention both. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, fish (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 smittenkitchen. 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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, gruyere cheese, pepper, thyme, marjoram, parsley):

  1. Sagebetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Basilbetter flavor fit
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, gruyere cheese, pepper, thyme, marjoram, parsley. 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).