Why it works: Yogurt and tarragon work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 116 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓
The recipe
1 litre (20 x 50ml shot-sized servings)Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Put the sliced red onions, golden caster sugar, red wine, red wine vinegar and vegetable stock in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 15 minutes, until the onions are very soft.
Add the roughly chopped cooked beetroot to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes more. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
Blend the mixture until completely smooth, then pass it through a fine sieve into a bowl. Cover and chill until cold, at least 1 hour.
Finely chop the tarragon leaves and stir them into the natural yogurt. Spoon the tarragon yogurt into an ice cube tray and freeze until solid, about 4 hours.
To serve, pour the chilled beetroot mixture into small shot glasses and top each one with a frozen tarragon yogurt cube.
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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Yogurt + tarragontop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together116 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Beetroot + tarragontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together112 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Red wine + vinegartop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together569 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Vinegar + tarragontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,299 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + yogurttop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together955 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, red wine, vinegar, beetroot, yogurt, tarragon):
- Cucumberbetter flavor fit
- Lettucebetter flavor fit
- Mustardbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, red wine, vinegar, beetroot, yogurt, tarragon. 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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