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Everyday Yellow Dal

I spent the summer in Israel when I was 15 years old, and while I know I did all of the expected stuff–day trips, stays at hostels and kibbutz, the big cities and the desert–one of the things that stands out most clearly in my memory is something sort of random–the way the Israeli kids dressed on hot days: black jeans and often long-sleeved shirts. I’d look at them, so covered, so dark, and want to scream. “Don’t you know how HOT it is here? I’m in my Tevas and tank top and you’re there wrapped as tight as you can in WINTER clothes.” Clearly this penchant for melodrama isn’t a recent phenomenon.

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Why it works: Tomato and cumin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,272 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (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. Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,272 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Peas + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lemon + cumintop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,599 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 peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, lemon, sugar, canola oil, mustard, tomato, cumin):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  3. Sesamebetter flavor fit
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lemon, sugar, canola oil, mustard, tomato, cumin. 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).