Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Salted Caramel

Exquisite salted caramel flavour pairings and recipes, revealed through data science.

Warm sweetness and saline notes are at the forefront of salted caramel'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 butter, sugar, and hints of molasses. We need to understand how these notes affect each other and which complementary flavors they harmonise with.

To map these harmonies, we analysed thousands of ingredients, breaking each one down across 150 flavour dimensions, identifying which notes complement and contrast. Our analysis reveals, for example, how almond's noisette tones resonate with salted caramel, and how honey's sinapic notes create a surprising synergy with its warm sweetness.

An ingredient's flavour profile is determined by its core characteristics (e.g. maillard, nectarous, and acidic) 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.

Unlocking Flavour Combinations

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 mustard. This suggests we should look for ingredients with a mustardy flavour, such as honey, when pairing with the caramel aromas of salted caramel.

The recipe below provides inspiration for pairing salted caramel with honey.

Harmonious Flavours Of Salted Caramel

Just as our statistical analysis showed that caramel and cabbagy flavour accents combine harmoniously, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavour notes present in salted caramel. For instance, the briney notes of salted caramel are strongly associated with grassy and green flavours.

The accents associated with the various aroma notes of salted caramel can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of almond offers many of the notes complementary to salted caramel, including hazelnut and almond aromas. Because the flavour profile of almond has many of the of the features that are complementary to salted caramel, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of almond across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with salted caramel.

Recipes That Pair Salted Caramel With Almond

Linked Flavour Notes

Looking at the aromas that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of salted caramel, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of salted caramel, 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 salted caramel.

What To Drink With Salted Caramel

The graphite notes in faugères make it a perfect pairing with salted caramel. Likewise, the rosemary flavours in les baux de provence create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of salted caramel 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., Salted caramel), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.