Why it works: Sumac and lemon work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 71 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: sesame (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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Sumac + lemontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together71 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cumin + oreganotop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together983 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Shallot + chivetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together447 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Oregano + lemontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together784 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the shallot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cumin, sumac, white wine, chive, oregano, avocado):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Spinachbetter flavor fit
- Shallotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cumin, sumac, white wine, chive, oregano, avocado. 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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