Hops is a plant with 116 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is 4-methyl-4-sulfanylpentan-2-one. It pairs most strongly with buckwheat, sharing 23 flavor compounds. Hops appears in 11 recipes, most commonly in creole cuisine.
Compounds ranked by rarity — the higher the score, the more distinctive to this ingredient.
Of the ~226 molecules that drive perceived food aroma (Dunkel et al. 2014), Hops's inventory contains 18. Most of the other 98 compounds are below detection threshold.
+ 6 more — showing top 12 by class and threshold.
Generalist = appears in >25% of foods (Maillard / fermentation products). Individualist = appears in <5% of foods (carries signature notes). Threshold values are in clean water — the actual perception threshold in a food matrix can differ substantially.
How Hops's 116 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.
81 of 116 are distinctive to hops — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.
Ordered by measured impact in hops — concentration against odour threshold where both are published, then by how distinctive the molecule is across the graph. Molecules measured here but not established as odorants sit below those that are.
Ranked by how often cooks actually use them together, across 453,403 recipes — the familiar answer first. Each pairing still carries its molecular score and shared-compound count; only the ORDER differs. Counts cover every characterised molecule the two ingredients have in common, not only the aroma-active ones, so they can exceed an ingredient’s aroma-compound count. For the chemistry-first view — where the surprising pairings live — see the molecular network below, the side-by-side comparison, or the Pairing Tool.
Hops and its 10 closest compound-sharing relatives. Spoke thickness = shared compounds; circle size = that ingredient's own compound count. Drag to rearrange, scroll to zoom, click to open.
Compare Hops side-by-side
Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.
This study investigates the extraction of bioactive compounds from Polaris variety hops using pressurized fluid systems with carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) and 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoro... Read abstract →
Aroma is a crucial indicator of hop quality. This study analyzed the differences in aroma compound composition among six hop varieties from three regions: North America, Europe, an... Read abstract →
This study investigated the impact of changes in craft beer formulation, by modifying the unmalted cereal [(durum (Da) and soft (Ri) wheat), emmer (Em)], hops [Cascade (Ca) and Col... Read abstract →
In recent years, many hop varieties with unique aromas, so-called "flavor hops", have been bred and grown. Here, we investigated the effect of late-harvested hops using three flavo... Read abstract →
Aroma compounds in Cascade and Chinook hops harvested from multiple Virginia locations were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (GC-MS-O) and aroma extr... Read abstract →
