Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Peanut Butter

Discover the best flavour pairings for peanut butter based on data analysis of thousands of recipes. Find perfect ingredient matches & delicious recipes.

Peanut butter is marked by the unmistakable taste of caramel and toast, but beneath its umaminess lies a complex symphony of subtle flavour notes, such as cocoa, diacetyl, and hints of molasses that contribute remarkable depth. And the alchemy of the kitchen begins when we seek out pairings that allow these notes to truly sing.

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 findings reveal, for instance, how bell pepper's leafy tones can carry peanut butter, or how cabbage's brassica notes create an unexpectedly harmonious bridge with the warm sweetness.

An ingredient's flavour stems from its core characteristics, such as maillard, vegetal, or spice, combined with layers of subtle flavour notes (outer bars). For a balanced dish, pair ingredients with a variety of core flavours, and choose complementary aroma notes for harmony.

The Flavour Code

To understand how flavour notes harmonise, we analysed more than 50,000 popular ingredient combinations. By exploring these pairings, we identified specific flavour notes that frequently occur together, indicating they share a harmonious relationship.

The Flavours That Harmonise With Caramel Notes

Our analysis shows that the flavour of caramel is strongly associated with the flavour of cabbage. This suggests we should look for ingredients with a cabbagy flavour when pairing with the caramel aromas of peanut butter.

The recipes below provide inspiration for pairing peanut butter with cabbage.

Harmonious Flavours Of Peanut Butter

Just as our analysis highlighted that caramel and cabbagy flavours are harmonious, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavour notes present in peanut butter. Similarly, the cocoa notes of peanut butter frequently pair with milky and apricot flavours.

The notes linked to the various notes of peanut butter can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of bell pepper offers many of the notes complementary to peanut butter, including leafy and celery aroma notes. Because the flavour profile of bell pepper has many of the of the features that are complementary to peanut butter, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of bell pepper across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with peanut butter.

Recipes That Pair Peanut Butter With Bell Pepper

Linked Flavour Notes

Looking at the aroma accents that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of peanut butter, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of peanut butter, along with the complementary aromas associated with each note. While the right side shows some of the ingredients that share many of the accents complementary to peanut butter.

What To Drink With Peanut Butter

The graphite notes in saumur champigny make it a perfect pairing with peanut butter. Likewise, the graphite flavours in faugères create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of peanut butter below.

Which Fruit Go With Peanut Butter?

Choose fruit that infuse with its nuttiness or enrich its warm aroma. Red bell pepper and peach offer vibrant, clean counterpoints, their verdant freshness lifting the palate. Mango add a gentle, oniony brightness, while green grape introduces a sophisticated, anise-tinged elegance.

Alternatively, embrace fruit that harmonise with peanut butter's creaminess. The addition of blackcurrant purée, with its subtle prunus notes, can complement the butter beautifully, while coconut lends a juicy aroma.

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., Peanut butter), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.