Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Smoked Bacon

Exquisite smoked bacon flavour pairings and recipes, revealed through data science.

Smoky depths and porcine notes are at the forefront of smoked bacon'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 glutamate, char, and hints of hickory. 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 Anaheim pepper's hexenal tones carry smoked bacon, and how brown onion's cepaceous notes create a surprising synergy with its smoky depths.

An ingredient's flavour stems from its core characteristics, such as carnal, maillard, or woody, 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.

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 Smoky Notes

Our analysis reveals a strong connection between smoke and onion flavours. Since smoked bacon has a distinct smoky flavour, try pairing it with the oniony flavours of brown onion.

The recipe below provides inspiration for pairing smoked bacon with brown onion.

Harmonious Flavours Of Smoked Bacon

Just as our statistical analysis showed that smoke and oniony flavour accents tend to pair together, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the notes present in smoked bacon. E.g. the porky notes of smoked bacon are often used with violic and rosemary notes.

The aroma notes associated with the various aromas of smoked bacon can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of Anaheim pepper offers many of the aromas complementary to smoked bacon, including grassy and capsicum aromas. Because the flavour profile of Anaheim pepper has many of the of the features that are complementary to smoked bacon, they are likely to pair very well together.

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

Recipes That Pair Smoked Bacon With Anaheim Pepper

Linked Flavour Notes

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

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of smoked bacon, 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 smoked bacon.

What To Drink With Smoked Bacon

The leafy notes in carrot juice make it a perfect pairing with smoked bacon. Likewise, the violet flavours in crème de violette create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of smoked bacon below.

Which Fruit Go With Smoked Bacon?

Choose fruit that enrich its toastiness or cut through its unctuous richness. Red bell pepper and pear offer vibrant, clean counterpoints, their verdant freshness lifting the palate. Apple add a gentle, oniony brightness, while green apple introduces a sophisticated, anise-tinged elegance.

Alternatively, embrace fruit that harmonise with smoked bacon's savoryness. The addition of plum tomato, with its subtle leafy notes, can complement the protease beautifully, while avocado lends a fresh leafiness.

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