Licorice is a herb with 35 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is d-fenchone. It pairs most strongly with flaxseed, sharing 15 flavor compounds. Licorice appears in 143 recipes.
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), Licorice's inventory contains 12. Most of the other 23 compounds are below detection 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 Licorice's 35 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.
14 of 35 are distinctive to licorice — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.
Ordered by measured impact in licorice — 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.
Licorice 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 Licorice side-by-side
Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.
Introduction: Ganmai Dazao Decoction is a traditional Chinese recipe, and is composed of licorice, floating wheat, and jujube. Methods: Effects of lactic acid bacteria fermentation... Read abstract →
Quantitative relations between the sensory overall quality (OQJ) of commercial single grape variety Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir wines, defined using specific sensory attributes, and... Read abstract →
, and the glycyrrhizin from licorice, the stimulation of the sweet taste receptor TAS1R2/TAS1R3 by these glycosides was evaluated. Read abstract →
GENERAL COMMENTARY article Front. Microbiol., 18 April 2016Sec. Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy Volume 7 - 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00531 Read abstract →