Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Seaweed

Exquisite seaweed flavour pairings and recipes, revealed through data science.

Marine aroma and glutamic notes are at the forefront of seaweed'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 iodine, brine, and hints of polyphenol. We need to understand how these notes affect each other and which complementary flavors they harmonise with.

To chart these harmonies, we analysed thousands of ingredients, each deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, pinpointing the notes that best complement this ingredient’s profile. Our analysis reveals, for example, how flat-leaf parsley's leafy tones carry seaweed, and how rice's oryzan notes create a surprising synergy with its marine aroma.

An ingredient's flavour comes from its core characteristics, like vegetal, acidic, and herbal, combined with its unique aroma notes (outer bars). When pairing ingredients, aim to include a broad variety of core characteristics for a balanced dish. And choose aroma notes that complement each other for a harmonious combination.

The Flavour Code

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 Seaweed Notes

Our analysis shows that the flavour of seaweed is strongly associated with the flavour of rice. This suggests we should look for ingredients with a rice-like flavour, such as rice, when pairing with the seaweedy accents of seaweed.

The recipes below provide inspiration for pairing seaweed with rice.

Harmonious Flavours Of Seaweed

Just as our ingredient analysis revealed that seaweed and rice-like flavours harmonise, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavours present in seaweed. For instance, the glutamic notes of seaweed are strongly associated with bay leaf and thyme-like notes.

The aroma accents associated with the various aromas of seaweed can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of flat-leaf parsley offers many of the aroma notes complementary to seaweed, including leafy and grassy aroma notes. Because the flavour profile of flat-leaf parsley has many of the of the features that are complementary to seaweed, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of flat-leaf parsley across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with seaweed.

Recipes That Pair Seaweed With Flat-leaf Parsley

Linked Flavour Notes

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

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

What To Drink With Seaweed

The grassy notes in sauvignon blanc (bordeaux) make it a perfect pairing with seaweed. Likewise, the grassy flavours in sauvignon/semillon blend create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of seaweed below.

Which Fruit Go With Seaweed?

Choose fruit that awaken its oceaness or cut through its marine aroma. Green zebra tomato offers vibrant, clean counterpoints, its verdant freshness lifting the palate. Gooseberry add a gentle, oniony brightness, while red bell pepper introduces a sophisticated, anise-tinged elegance.

Alternatively, embrace fruit that harmonise with seaweed's salinity. The addition of kiwi, with its subtle leafy notes, can complement the brine beautifully. Avocado bridges earthiness and citrus zest, while pink grapefruit lends a fresh 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., Seaweed), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.