Name: Lemongrass-Chicken Meatballs on Rice Vermicelli
Yield: Makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 1/4 cup fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam); 1/4 cup distilled white or rice vinegar; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1/2 carrot, shredded on the large holes of a box grater; 2 Thai bird or serrano chiles, seeded and minced; 10 ounces thin rice vermicelli; 3 tablespoons vegetable oil; 2 cloves garlic, chopped; 6 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced; 1 stalk lemongrass; 1 pound ground chicken; 1 1/2 tablespoons minced shallots; 1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam); 1 tablespoon cornstarch; 1 Thai bird or serrano chile, seeded and minced; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1 teaspoon light brown sugar; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Why it works: Garlic and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. 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.

Garlic + shallottop 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).
Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,677 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rice + carrottop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,477 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 (sugar, fish sauce, rice, garlic, carrot, chicken, shallot):

Turmericfits better
Cuminfits better
Gingerfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, fish sauce, rice, garlic, carrot, chicken, shallot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Lemongrass	1 tbsp (6g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Lemongrass-Chicken Meatballs on Rice Vermicelli