Name: Curried Beef Stew
Yield: Makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 6 dried puya or 3 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 lemongrass stalk, bottom 4" only, tough outer layer removed, cut into 1" pieces; 2 tablespoons sliced peeled fresh galangal; 2 tablespoons sliced peeled fresh turmeric; 1/2 cup chopped shallots; 1/4 cup halved garlic cloves; 1 tablespoon Thai shrimp paste; 2 pounds trimmed beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2"–2" cubes; 3 tablespoons soy sauce, preferably Thai thin soy sauce (such as Healthy Boy); 2 tablespoons ground dried Thai chiles; 9 cups beef broth, preferably low-salt; 1 cup halved shallots; 3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick half-moons (about 1 cup); 6 fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves; Chopped fresh cilantro; Thinly sliced Thai basil

Why it works: Turmeric and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 282 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. 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.

Turmeric + shallottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together282 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Turmeric + clovetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,876 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Turmeric + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together871 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turmeric, shallot, garlic, shrimp, beef, sauce, carrot):

Cuminfits better
Capersfits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turmeric, shallot, garlic, shrimp, beef, sauce, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Kaffir Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Lemongrass	1 tbsp (6g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Galangal	not in our table	0

Curried Beef Stew