Why it works: Tarragon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Tarragon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Extract green tarragon by simmering it in second stock until reduced.
Strain the mixture.
Add hechemel and a few blanched, finely-chopped tarragon leaves to the strained liquid.
Season with sugar, coarse sea salt, and cayenne pepper.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,399 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tarragon + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together504 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the tarragon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Tarragonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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