MOUEEL
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herbgreen · clove · anise · peppery · grassy

Basil

Bruises if you look at it wrong, then perfumes the whole room. High maintenance, worth it.

on its own
0.0sour
1.0sweet
1.0savoury
1.0bitter
0.0umami
order · canon first

3 of these 35 are wild — theory says yes, nobody has cooked them. why →

35 pairings for Basil.

Strawberry

classic

Both carry green leaf aldehydes; the basil is the underripe half of the fruit.

Torn in at the end. Heat kills the linalool that makes the pairing work.

Pasta

classic

Heat from the pasta volatilises the leaf. Add it off the flame.

Lemon

common

Basil is linalool, zest is limonene. Two perfumes, and the peel turns the volume up.

Linalool over green melon; sweeter and rounder than mint and it lasts longer.

The fresh leaf restores the green note that six days of sun destroyed.

Courgette

common

Courgette is a blank green canvas; basil supplies the whole aroma.

Aubergine

common

Green top note over a flavour that sits entirely in the low end.

Sweetcorn

common

Same August window; the clove note reads well on corn sugar.

Garlic

common

Sulfur pushes forward, basil pulls the raw edge off it.

Ricotta

common

Green linalool on unsalted curd. Salt heavily or it vanishes.

Burrata

common

A fresh herb against a cheese with almost no aroma of its own.

The herb is green and volatile, the vinegar dark and slow. Full spectrum.

Tucupi

common

Alfavaca goes in as it boils. A sour broth wants a sweet green top, not more acid.

Concentrated tomato has lost its green top note. Fresh leaf hands it back.

Peach

uncommon

Linalool in the leaf doubles the linalool in the flesh. Tear, do not chop.

Nectarine

uncommon

Linalool on linalool. It reads as more perfume, not as a herb on the plate.

Kiwi

uncommon

Linalool over grassy acid; it drags the kiwi toward the perfume end of green.

Passionfruit

uncommon

Linalool over catty acid drags the aroma from feline back toward floral.

Cantaloupe

uncommon

Shared floral terpenes; the leaf makes the musk read as perfume rather than sweat.

Anchovy

uncommon

Salt-fish umami under a green leaf: the whole Ligurian trick.

Prawn

uncommon

Sweet shellfish protein takes the anise note like a marinade.

Hemp seed

uncommon

Both terpene-green; hemp pesto is pine nut with the price tag removed.

Linalool over a blank sweet canvas; the herb becomes the flavour of the dish.

Lactones want a herbal counterweight or they turn to jam.

Ionone and eugenol overlap. Bruise the leaf, macerate the fruit.

Gin

rare

Juniper runs on pine terpenes, basil on linalool and eugenol. Linalool is where they meet.

Lime

wild

Shared linalool with a green edge; it is a gimlet with a leaf in it.

Linalool over lactones; the fruit stops being a smoothie and starts being a course.

Sweet raw scallop plus basil oil: shared linalool, no tradition behind it.