The lure of Indian food and its lip-smacking diversity is well-known. If you ask any Indian living abroad, it’s perfectly possible that he/she confesses missing the food more than their own family! Can you guess the reason, after all?
On an average, a food ingredient has over 50 flavour compounds. In fact, scientists have come up with a Flavour Map that you can explore to come to a scientific decision on how to pair up your foods.
The general idea is to pair up food items based on the number of flavour compounds they share. As an example, wine and cheese go very well together and the reason can be understood in the following snippet of wine and cheese flavour map, as they have a lot of flavours in common:
Each blue dot represents a food and the size of a dot shows how popular the food is. A line connecting the two dots means the two foods share at least one flavour-related chemical compound. Moreover the more flavour compounds they share, the thicker the line. Also the grey line connects food in the same category and the vertical position of a food reveals the total number of other foods that connect to it. I highly encourage clicking on this interactive Flavour Map link to grasp this concept better.
Now that you have got the hang of this, I am going to break the secret of Indian food to you, according to a recent research.
Indian food does not follow this general rule. Foods at the top of the page share flavour compounds with many other foods. Foods at the bottom of the page are completely unique — they don’’t share flavours with any other foods. You can see that the most prominent ingredients of Indian food, such as clove, onion, tomato, cumin, yoghurt, lemon juice, sesame seed and many more lie close to the bottom of the chart.
Thus the average flavour sharing of ingredients in Indian food is significantly lesser than expected. Moreover the final quality of Indian food that differentiates it from western cuisine is its complexity.
An average Indian recipe calls for over 7 ingredients with moderate to low flavour overlap, and Indian food makes use of over 200 distinct ingredients out of the roughly 381 ingredients observed around the world. That’s what make Indian food unique and for Indians, so uniquely delicious.
Such a detailed article on food ingredients 🤓🤓
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Haha! The heart of a foodie, after all 😀
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I found (by accident) some people cooking in an Indian village on Youtube. I ended up binge watching, and falling in love with the people. I like the “happy dance” of the two little girls when they taste the food. I then cooked a couple of those recipes and MAN! it was so tasty that I am adjusting my ways of cooking & eating. Even my daughter, who doesn’t like fish, says it was soooo good. Now I keep an eye on my “new” ingredients.
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That sounds so interesting! Do share this link you have mentioned. I would love to follow it up as well 🙂
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The mother and grandmother take turns cooking in the various videos. I learned a lot. https://youtu.be/nsV8eBnUBDc
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This looks promising! Will check it out 🙂
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I love Indian food, specially the biryani! Very interesting article.
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Thanks a lot! I love it as well 🙂
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I am not sure if chickpeas or cauliflower has its place in Indian kitchen, however I do love curry cooked with these ingredients.
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We have a lot of curries with chickpeas and trust me, ‘aloo gobhi’ (potato cauliflower curry) is one of the most delicious Indian curries you can ever have ❤
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Potato Cauliflower curry – Look delicious. But is it a Curry or Normal Veg. Can you please share the receipe for us.
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This is a pretty reliable website for Indian curries and dishes.
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/aloo-gobi-recipe-punjabialoo-gobi/
I have often tried the recipes on it with great results 🙂
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Thank you for this! I love cooking and I cook a lot of Indian food (mainly dal and Keema to the delight of my son). And a meal would not be a meal without Basmati rice! I also make my own Nan. I lived two years in Delhi and I loved the food, especially in the Old City. But my love for Indian food started way before! thanks again. Kenza.
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Oh yes! No place serves food like Old Delhi. I am so glad you have tried it and liked it. It is one of our greatest prides and joys! I am glad you have learnt cooking Indian food so well that you are able to prepare naans. It is one tough nut to crack.
Cheers to the love of food ❤
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This was an interesting read
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Thank you! So glad to know you found it interesting 🙂
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Fascinating information! Thanks for sharing the flavor map. I never knew it existed!
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Haha! It is so much fun playing around with this map, you know. I spent an entire day with it the first time. Do give it a try 😀
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Fascinating! I do my fair share of Indian cooking but didn’t really look into the “science” of it. This was an interesting read!
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Wow. Such a insightful article. Loved the facts. ❤️❤️
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Thanks for the read, Shantanu 🙂
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My pleasure always
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🙂
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A fun tool but, science or no science, food from India makes my taste buds dance in delight.
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Haha! So glad to know that 🙂
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What intrigues me most about your blog is how knowledgeable you are on pretty much every topic. It’s commendable.
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You are so kind with compliments, Lavanya! I am happy that you find my blog interesting 🙂
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Excellent article. I love Indian food.
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Thank you, Racquel! You should visit India sometime to enjoy Indian food in all its glory 🙂
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I plan in it.
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Awesome ❤
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Such a unique and fascinating read.
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Thanks a lot! 🙂
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Excellent article
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Thank you 🙂
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Welcome.
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Wow, that’s interesting.
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Thanks a lot 🙂
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Reblogged this on .
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Well, now i know! what you said about missing the food more than the people is occasionally true XD
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Haha! I am so happy to get my suspicions confirmed 😀
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Loved the article. I always knew there is a reason for it to be so delicious
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Thanks a lot for reading it, Ankit! Glad you liked it 🙂
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I am guessing, that the article is written by someone who is totally a foodie at heart!!
Well written!😊
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Haha yes! Total foodie this side. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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Great post!
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Thank you 🙂
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This is a great read- thanks Neha.
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Thank you for reading it, Sebby 🙂
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Great post. Keep it up!
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Thank you 🙂
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awesome article!
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Thank you 🙂
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This is a great article. No wonder, Indians find it hard to get used to other cuisines! I like other cuisines but only when they have lot of ingredients and flavours !
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I agree 🙂
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It’s one food I’ve always wanted to try, but haven’t. One day!
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Definitely one day 🙂
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This is a wonderful post. I how you broke it down.
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Thank you so much 🙂
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Really informative …specially for a beginner like me…please keep posting stuff like this…it is very helpful…also please check my posts and guide with your tips😁😁😄
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Thank you. Will definitely check it out 🙂
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Thankyou❤😃
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You’re welcome 🙂
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Really nice post.
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Thank you 🙂
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I am not Indian, but I start to love Indian food when I worked part time in an Indian restaurant during my university years. The types if different curry, the palak paneer (love this one best!), the cottage cheese are all sooooo wonderful.
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❤
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Reblogged this on Exploring.
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Hey loved such a great detailing on ‘Indian Spices’. 🙂
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Thank you, Apeksha 🙂
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Thank you for the very informative post. I love Indian cooking…you should have seen my family’s reaction when I brought home asafoetida for the first time. Yikes, that is some smelly stuff!! Who would think it could taste so amazing…it almost deserves a post unto its own. Lol
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Haha I agree! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Friggin' Doo A!.
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Congratulations is the real reward of the cooking. Nice conversation!
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This is amazing
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Thank you 🙂
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Nice blog …loved it 🙂
Do checkout mine on Indian regional dishes one must try-
https://boldblushblog.com/2018/10/01/regional-food/
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