TGRWT #22: Raisin

Impatient raisin waiting to be cooked

More than 1 1/2 year has passed since the last round of They Go Really Well Together, and in the meantime there’s been quite some publicity with TGRWT being mentioned both in Gastronomica and Chemical and Engineering News. Based on predicted aroma similiarity participants are given two or more ingredients to cook with and blog about. The idea is based on a science guided approach to bring together ingredients one might otherwise not have used together when cooking. Altogether somewhere between 100 and 200 recipes have been submitted in previous rounds, so it’s worthwhile browsing through the rounds-ups that have been published. Some readers have inquired about a continuation of the blogging event, and I’m happy to announce a new round of TGRWT starting today here at Khymos. In previous rounds two ingredients were chosen, but this time there is a slight twist as there is only one ingredient: raisins. Participants will then be able to select one (or more) ingredients to pair with raisins using food pairing trees at the Foodpairing website. Raisins alone rarely play a significant role in cooking, but their rich flavor arising from enzymatic browning reactions (as opposed to the non-enzymatic Maillard browning), and as such they are one of the rare examples of desirable enzymatic browning. I believe raisins should open up a host of possibilities ranging from savory dishes to the obvious sweet ones and look very much forward to see your contributions!


Raisin is included in the free Lite version of the foodpairing website, so check it out!

Readers who have followed the previous TGRWT rounds and Khymos for a while will be familiar with the Foodpairing website and their food pairing trees. Simply put, shorter “branches” indicate greater aroma similarity. Further explanations and videos about foodpairing (or predicted aroma similarity) and the science behind is available on their website. It started on a Belgian domain in 2007 (foodpairing.be), but as the project developed foodpairing.com was launched. This summer an iPad edition was made available. If you download the app and register there maybe a surprise waiting for you at a bar near you. Check out the video at the end of this post for more information about this.

This is how you can participate in TGRWT #22:

1. Prepare a dish that combines raisins with one or more ingredients from the food pairing tree of raisins shown above. You are free to use any other ingredients in addition, but it’s nice if the aroma is focused on ingredients from the food pairing tree of raisin. You can either use an existing recipe (if there is any) or come up with your own. You may have to vary the amounts used to balance the ingredients. And remember that the ingredients suggested by the food pairing tree may need some contrasting ingredients as well to avoid bland dishes.

2. Take a picture of the dish and write an entry in your blog by August 31st with TGRWT #22 in the title. Readers will be particularly interested in how the flavour pairing worked out, so make an attempt at describing the taste and aroma and whether you liked it or not.

3. A round-up will be posted here with pictures. Please send an email to webmaster-at-khymos-dot-org with the following details: Your name, URL of your blog, URL of your TGRWT #22 post and a picture for your entry in the round-up. I’d appreciate if the pictures are at least 620 x 620 pixels.

Please use the #TGRWT hashtag on Twitter, omitting the round number to keep things simple. And feel free to announce this food blogging event on other platforms as well!

A special surprise for users of the Foodpairing app
To celebrate the launch of the iPad edition 32 of the best cocktail bars and restaurants in the world will offer the first 15 people showing the Foodpairing app on their iPad a free cocktail or tasting. See the video below for more:

Recent posts on Khymos related to predicted aroma similarity:
A flavor pairing color analogy
Flavor pairing revisited
Copenhagen MG seminar: Flavor pairing (part 2)