Name: Manchego Jalapeño Cornbread
Yield: Serves 8-12
Ingredients: 1 cup cornmeal; 1 cup all-purpose flour; 6 ounces Manchego cheese, grated; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons pickled sliced jalapeño peppers; 1 cup milk; 1/3 cup vegetable oil; 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Why it works: Manchego and cheese work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 93 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

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.

Manchego + cheesetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together93 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,426 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Manchego	not in our table	0

Manchego Jalapeño Cornbread