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.
September 22, 2018 at 11:24 pm
Such a detailed article on food ingredients 🤓🤓
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September 22, 2018 at 11:25 pm
Haha! The heart of a foodie, after all 😀
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September 23, 2018 at 12:04 am
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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September 23, 2018 at 11:15 am
That sounds so interesting! Do share this link you have mentioned. I would love to follow it up as well 🙂
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September 23, 2018 at 6:03 pm
The mother and grandmother take turns cooking in the various videos. I learned a lot. https://youtu.be/nsV8eBnUBDc
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September 24, 2018 at 8:27 pm
This looks promising! Will check it out 🙂
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September 23, 2018 at 12:27 am
I love Indian food, specially the biryani! Very interesting article.
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September 23, 2018 at 11:15 am
Thanks a lot! I love it as well 🙂
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September 23, 2018 at 12:57 am
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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September 23, 2018 at 11:17 am
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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September 26, 2018 at 2:34 pm
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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September 26, 2018 at 3:26 pm
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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September 23, 2018 at 1:58 am
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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September 23, 2018 at 11:20 am
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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September 23, 2018 at 8:04 am
This was an interesting read
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September 23, 2018 at 11:23 am
Thank you! So glad to know you found it interesting 🙂
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September 23, 2018 at 9:20 am
Fascinating information! Thanks for sharing the flavor map. I never knew it existed!
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September 23, 2018 at 11:24 am
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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September 23, 2018 at 12:23 pm
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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September 23, 2018 at 4:46 pm
Wow. Such a insightful article. Loved the facts. ❤️❤️
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September 24, 2018 at 8:26 pm
Thanks for the read, Shantanu 🙂
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September 25, 2018 at 5:13 am
My pleasure always
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September 25, 2018 at 2:40 pm
🙂
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September 23, 2018 at 5:51 pm
A fun tool but, science or no science, food from India makes my taste buds dance in delight.
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September 24, 2018 at 8:27 pm
Haha! So glad to know that 🙂
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September 23, 2018 at 9:38 pm
What intrigues me most about your blog is how knowledgeable you are on pretty much every topic. It’s commendable.
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September 24, 2018 at 8:28 pm
You are so kind with compliments, Lavanya! I am happy that you find my blog interesting 🙂
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September 24, 2018 at 1:41 pm
Excellent article. I love Indian food.
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September 24, 2018 at 8:31 pm
Thank you, Racquel! You should visit India sometime to enjoy Indian food in all its glory 🙂
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September 24, 2018 at 9:17 pm
I plan in it.
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September 24, 2018 at 9:36 pm
Awesome ❤
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September 25, 2018 at 2:34 pm
Such a unique and fascinating read.
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September 25, 2018 at 2:41 pm
Thanks a lot! 🙂
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September 26, 2018 at 4:09 pm
Excellent article
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September 26, 2018 at 5:13 pm
Thank you 🙂
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October 1, 2018 at 12:33 pm
Welcome.
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September 27, 2018 at 11:33 am
Wow, that’s interesting.
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September 27, 2018 at 3:46 pm
Thanks a lot 🙂
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October 3, 2018 at 2:06 pm
Reblogged this on .
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October 4, 2018 at 6:51 pm
Well, now i know! what you said about missing the food more than the people is occasionally true XD
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October 4, 2018 at 11:55 pm
Haha! I am so happy to get my suspicions confirmed 😀
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October 8, 2018 at 6:40 pm
Loved the article. I always knew there is a reason for it to be so delicious
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October 9, 2018 at 10:29 am
Thanks a lot for reading it, Ankit! Glad you liked it 🙂
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October 31, 2018 at 12:14 pm
I am guessing, that the article is written by someone who is totally a foodie at heart!!
Well written!😊
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November 9, 2018 at 1:59 pm
Haha yes! Total foodie this side. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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November 5, 2018 at 12:58 am
Great post!
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November 9, 2018 at 2:04 pm
Thank you 🙂
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November 9, 2018 at 1:45 am
This is a great read- thanks Neha.
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November 9, 2018 at 2:07 pm
Thank you for reading it, Sebby 🙂
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November 12, 2018 at 1:37 pm
Great post. Keep it up!
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November 12, 2018 at 1:46 pm
Thank you 🙂
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November 15, 2018 at 8:59 pm
awesome article!
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November 17, 2018 at 12:04 am
Thank you 🙂
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November 16, 2018 at 3:44 am
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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November 17, 2018 at 12:05 am
I agree 🙂
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November 17, 2018 at 1:13 am
It’s one food I’ve always wanted to try, but haven’t. One day!
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November 17, 2018 at 1:17 am
Definitely one day 🙂
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November 18, 2018 at 12:11 pm
This is a wonderful post. I how you broke it down.
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November 19, 2018 at 8:55 pm
Thank you so much 🙂
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November 22, 2018 at 5:26 pm
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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November 30, 2018 at 6:47 pm
Thank you. Will definitely check it out 🙂
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November 30, 2018 at 7:37 pm
Thankyou❤😃
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December 17, 2018 at 3:08 pm
You’re welcome 🙂
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November 26, 2018 at 10:24 am
Really nice post.
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November 30, 2018 at 6:47 pm
Thank you 🙂
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December 7, 2018 at 7:35 am
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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December 17, 2018 at 3:11 pm
❤
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December 14, 2018 at 2:43 pm
Reblogged this on Exploring.
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December 14, 2018 at 2:47 pm
Hey loved such a great detailing on ‘Indian Spices’. 🙂
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December 17, 2018 at 3:14 pm
Thank you, Apeksha 🙂
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December 23, 2018 at 9:52 pm
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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January 16, 2019 at 5:25 pm
Haha I agree! 🙂
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December 28, 2018 at 5:01 am
Reblogged this on Friggin' Doo A!.
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