Jew's ear + Pepper (C. pubescens)

Auricularia auricula-judae, known as the Jew's ear, wood ear, jelly ear or by a number of other common names, is a species of edible Auriculariales fungus found worldwide. The fruiting body is distinguished by its noticeably ear-like shape and brown colouration; it grows upon wood, especially elder. Its specific epithet is derived from the belief that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an elder tree; the common name "Judas's ear" eventually became "Jew's ear", while today "jelly ear" and other names are sometimes used. The fungus can be found throughout the year in temperate regions worldwide, where it grows upon both dead and living wood.
Capsicum pubescens is a species of the genus Capsicum (pepper), which is found primarily in Central and South America. The plants, but especially the fruits, are often referred to as "rocoto":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocoto and locoto. As they reach a relatively advanced age and the roots lignify quickly, sometimes the familiar name is tree chili. Of all the domesticated species of peppers, this is the least widespread and systematically furthest away from all others. [Wikipedia]
Shared flavor compounds
These compounds appear in both Jew's ear and Pepper (C. pubescens), giving them a molecular basis for flavor affinity, the pairing principle articulated by Francois Benzi and implemented in flavor-pairing research.
Why it works
The flavor-pairing hypothesis proposes that ingredients sharing significant aromatic compounds harmonize on the palate. Jew's ear and Pepper (C. pubescens) overlap on 20 key compound(s), which is why classic culinary traditions, and our deterministic matching algorithm, place them together.
- Pairing computed by: pairing-compute
- Methodology: deterministic compound-overlap matching (no LLM)
- Compound data: Wikidata + Wikidata
- Part of: Living Gastronomic Intelligence graph