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Home-style Tacos Al Pastor

"Tacos al Pastor are a favorite in Mexico and Mexican restaurants throughout the world for good reason: The mixture of smoky, spicy chiles, sweet pineapples and fresh onions and cilantro is taco perfection. Traditionally, Tacos al Pastor are made by marinating pork in chile sauce, layering the meat on a vertical rotisserie, adorning with a pineapple and roasting slowly for hours--a process that's almost impossible to replicate at home. So we've taken the delicious, authentic flavors that make these tacos so special, and adapted the recipe for your home kitchen, so you can enjoy it whenever a craving strikes!"

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Home-style Tacos Al Pastor

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Home-style Tacos Al Pastor

6 servings
Prep25 min
Cook35 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

668Calories
34 gProtein
32 gFat
65 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 13 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Corn Tortilla1 medium flour (45g)140
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Pineapple1 cup chunks (165g)82
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Cilantro1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)1
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Onion + cumintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + cumintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,382 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, sauce, onion, vinegar, garlic, cumin):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, sauce, onion, vinegar, garlic, cumin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.