Nowadays we can use gas chromatography and olfactometry techniques to analyze different foods and see why they go together. There are a number of commercial databases that list thousands of popular ingredients and their threshold levels of volatile compounds. For the most part, this information is best used to explain a tasty combination. However, we can look at compounds and try to predict interesting combinations with varied success. This idea is the very heart of what we refer to as "Molecular Gastronomy" - to completely deconstruct something down to its most basic elements. This can mean the physical and chemical process behind heating a dish, flavors and textures of a classical dish or aromatic compounds in a specific combination of ingredients. How we reassemble the data is the interesting part.
I've barely begun to scratch the surface of this topic personally. In the spirit of science, I've decided to post these limited findings. Most combinations are based on similarly high levels of specific compounds. Of course these are not guaranteed to work. I was really excited to find things like lavender and juniper occur so frequently, because I like them both very much and find them really hard to work with. My combinations go from simple and typical like orange, cilantro and cardamom to very strange like, asparagus, coffee and popcorn. Here's what I found.
Combination #1:
orange
lemon
dill seed
fennel
juniper berry
lavender
Combination #2:
lavender
banana
coffee
honey
gin
allspice
Combination #3:
bay leaf
cheddar cheese
gin
allspice
Combination #4:
caviar
cilantro
Combination#5:
asparagus
coffee
popcorn
Combination #6:
orange juice
cilantro
cardamom
More on this topic visit, Khymos.org, TGRWT, Leffingwell.com
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