Spirit is an alcoholic beverage with 104 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is butanoic acid 3-methyl-ethyl ester. It pairs most strongly with camphor, sharing 5 flavor compounds. Spirit appears in 1,840 recipes, most commonly in indian 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), Spirit's inventory contains 24. Most of the other 80 compounds are below detection threshold.
+ 12 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 Spirit's 104 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.
36 of 104 are distinctive to spirit — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.
Ordered by measured impact in spirit — 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 median concentration across published studies. Only 2 of Spirit's 104 compounds have a measured concentration in the literature — the rest are confirmed present but not yet quantified. Bars are log-scaled.
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.
Spirit 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 Spirit side-by-side
Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.
The main objective of the present study was to determine the effect of the distillation technique: (i) fractional column distillation (FCD), (ii) copper alembic distillation (CAD),... Read abstract →
Chinese strong-flavour liquor is produced via a traditional solid-state fermentation strategy facilitated by live microorganisms in pit mud-based cellars. For the present analysis,... Read abstract →
Chinese traditional fermented foods have a very long and complex history. These fermented foods have fascinating characteristics. These are mainly produced by autochthonous ferment... Read abstract →
Cognac spirit aromas result from the presence of a wide variety of volatile odorous compounds associated with the modalities of spirit distillation and aging. However, very few stu... Read abstract →
Solid-phase microextraction - mass spectrometry (SPME-MS) and fast gas chromatography based electronic nose (GC-E-Nose) were used and compared for their suitability to distinguish... Read abstract →
