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Quesadilla Jalapeno Spread

"This is a delicious creamy jalapeno spread to use on quesadillas, tacos, or whatever you want. It tastes just like the one on Taco Bell's quesadillas."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Jalapeno and cumin work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 688 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

0.25 cup
Prep15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, diced canned jalapeno peppers and the juice from the canned jalapenos.

  2. Add the ground cumin, sugar, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and a dash of salt.

  3. Stir everything together until smooth and evenly colored.

  4. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes so the flavors blend.

  5. Taste and adjust the salt or cayenne if needed, then stir again before serving as a spread for quesadillas.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Jalapeno + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cumin + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,083 recipes

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

  3. Jalapeno + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + cumintop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,382 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Pepper + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,044 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (jalapeno, pepper, cumin, sugar):

  1. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  2. Turmericbetter flavor fit
  3. Oreganobetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against jalapeno, pepper, cumin, sugar. 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).