Name: Cooking for Others: Irish Freckles, Jewish-Italian Breakfast
Ingredients: Hoboken St. Patty’s Pick Me Up Brunch; Post-Party; Adam’s Apartment, Chelsea; 50-60 Green American Apparel T-Shirts Wearers; 30 Recovering Daytime Drinkers; Brunch Buffet; Evening BBQ; Green Eggs and Ham i.e. Phoebe’s McMuffins with Farm-Fresh Eggs, Prosciutto and Pesto; Post-St. Patty’s Patties i.e. Adam’s Famous Man Burgers; 5 garlic cloves; 3 ½ cups basil (2 oz); 1 cup parsley; ¾ cup pine nuts, toasted; ½ – 1 cup olive oil; 2/3 cup grated parmesan; 1 – 1½ lemons, juiced; 3 dozen eggs; 1 tsp salt; 25 English muffins; 25 slices mozzarella (from the deli, it was only $6 for the whole lot); 25 slices prosciutto or deli ham*; 3 tomatoes, sliced (optional); 4 pounds of ground hamburger meat – I normally go with half 80/20 and half 90/10 because I’m indecisive, but the lean/fat mix is up to you; 1/2 teaspoon of salt; 1/2 teaspoon of pepper; 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt; 1 teaspoon of soy sauce; 1 egg; 1 tablespoons of BBQ sauce; 2 tablespoons of Teriyaki sauce; 3 tablespoons of Peter Luger’s Steak Sauce; 4 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce; 2 Avocados sliced; 8-12 Cheese Slices

Why it works: Basil and pine match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 332 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

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.

Basil + pinetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together332 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Basil + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,351 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,805 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + basiltop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,437 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, ham, prosciutto, clove, basil, parsley, pine):

Thymefits better
Nutmegfits better
Tarragonfits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham, prosciutto, clove, basil, parsley, pine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pork	100g cooked	242
Avocado	1 medium (150g)	240
Pine Nut	1 oz (28g)	191
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Mozzarella Cheese	1 oz (28g)	85
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sesame Seed	1 tbsp (9g)	52
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Hamburger	not in our table	0
Meat	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Cooking for Others: Irish Freckles, Jewish-Italian Breakfast