Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Lavender
Top flavour pairings and lavender recipes, revealed through the hidden methmatics of flavour.
Piney floralness and petal-like notes are at the forefront of lavender's flavour profile, but identifying its perfect partner requires exploring its subtle nuances. We must examine the complex interplay of notes within its bouquet, like resin, jasmine, and hints of eucalyptus. We need to understand how these notes affect each other and which complementary flavors they harmonise with.
To illuminate these harmonies, we embarked on an ambitious journey, analysing thousands of ingredients. Each was meticulously deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, allowing us to pinpoint precisely which notes complement in both classic and unexpected ways. Our analysis reveals, for example, how lamb chop's adipose tones enrich lavender, and how muscovado sugar's molassesey notes create a surprising synergy with its piney floralness.
Flavour Profile Of Lavender Across 150 Dimensions Of Flavour
Longer dark blue lines indicate stronger flavour notes
An ingredient's flavour profile is determined by its core characteristics (e.g. floral, herbal, and woody) enhanced by layers of subtle aroma notes (outer bars). When pairing ingredients, aim for a mix of core traits to build balance, and select complementary aroma notes to create harmony.
The Art of Flavour Pairing
To understand exactly which flavours harmonise, we compiled a database of over 50,000 ingredient pairings commonly used in cooking. We then analysed these pairings, identifying the specific flavour notes that frequently appear together.
The Flavours That Harmonise With Lavender Notes
Strength of Association Between Flavours
The flavours most associated with lavender notes are: Molasses, Peaty, Clove, Seedy, Ficus, Cedar, Hibiscus, Cinnamon, Saffron, Malic, Aspergillus, Sesame, Grapefruit, Vanilla, Coconut.
Our analysis shows that the flavour of lavender is strongly associated with the flavour of molasses. This suggests we should look for ingredients with a molasses flavour, such as muscovado sugar, when pairing with the linalool accents of lavender.
The recipe below provides inspiration for pairing lavender with muscovado sugar.
Harmonious Flavours Of Lavender
Just as our statistical analysis showed that lavender and molasses flavour notes frequently pair together, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavours present in lavender. For instance, the blossom accents of lavender are strongly associated with milky and fennel notes.
The aroma notes complementary to the various aroma notes of lavender can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.
Flavour Profile Of Lavender And Its Complementary Flavour Notes
Longer dark blue lines indicate stronger flavour notes and white lines indicate complementary flavour notes
Matching Flavour Profiles
The flavour profile of lamb chop offers many of the notes complementary to lavender, including fatty and gamey aromas. Because the flavour profile of lamb chop has many of the features that are complementary to lavender, they are likely to pair very well together.
Prominent Flavour Notes Of Lamb Chop Are Represented By Longer Bars
Longer dark blue lines indicate stronger flavour notes
The chart above shows the unique profile of lamb chop across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with lavender.
Recipes That Pair Lavender With Lamb Chop
Linked Flavour Notes
Looking at the aromas that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of lavender, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.
Lavender's Harmonious Flavours And Complementary Ingredients
Lavender's Strongest Flavours
Complementary Flavours
Ingredients with Complementary Flavours
Flavour groups:
Nectarous
Floral
Herbal
Vegetal
Maillard
Earthy
Carnal
The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of lavender, along with the complementary aromas associated with each note. While the right side shows some of the ingredients that share many of the aroma accents complementary to lavender.
What To Drink With Lavender
The lacteal notes in dairy make it a perfect pairing with lavender. Likewise, the lacteal flavours in milk create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of lavender below.
How Flavonomics Works
We've pioneered a unique, data-driven approach to decode the intricate art of flavour pairing. Our goal is to move beyond intuition and uncover the science of why certain ingredients harmonise beautifully. This rigorous methodology allows us to provide you with insightful and reliable pairing recommendations.
Our analysis begins with over 50,000 carefully selected recipes from acclaimed chefs like Galton Blackiston, Marcello Tully, and Pierre Lambinon. This premium dataset ensures our model distils genuine culinary excellence and creativity.
Each ingredient from these recipes is deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, creating a unique numerical "flavour fingerprint." This quantification allows us to apply advanced analytical methods to identify complex patterns between flavour notes.
We identify popular ingredient combinations that frequently appear in our recipe database. Regression analysis is then performed on these pairings to statistically validate and pinpoint truly harmonious flavours.
These insights drive our predictive model, which allows us to take any ingredient (e.g., Lavender), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.
Explore More
Discover more ingredient profiles and expand your culinary knowledge. Each ingredient page offers detailed analysis of flavour profiles, pairing insights, and culinary applications.
The content on our analysis blog is semi-automated. All of the words were manually written by a human, but the content is updated dynamically based on the data.