Name: New Orleans Jambalaya
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 3 h 10 min
Yield: 50 servings
Ingredients: 1 cup soy sauce; 4 tablespoons dried thyme; 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 2 tablespoons paprika; 2 onions, chopped; 2 tablespoons ground black pepper; 16 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves; 3/4 pound bacon, cut into small pieces; 8 onions, diced; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 3 pounds chorizo, sliced into chunks; 3 pounds cooked ham, cut into 1/2 inch pieces; 3 tablespoons dried thyme; 4 teaspoons cayenne pepper; 5 cups chicken stock; 6 (14.5 ounce) cans peeled and diced tomatoes with juice; 4 green bell pepper, chopped; 6 cups uncooked white rice; 10 pounds medium shrimp - peeled and deveined

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

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together5,608 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, thyme, pepper, onion, chicken, garlic, flour):

Marjorambetter flavor fit
Parsleybetter flavor fit
Cuminbetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, thyme, pepper, onion, chicken, garlic, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

New Orleans Jambalaya