Name: Frito Pie with 1 Hour Texas Chili
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 6 dried ancho chilies, stems and seeds removed; 2 dried chipotle chilies, stems and seeds removed; 1 tablespoon cooking oil, bacon grease or lard; 1 onion, roughly chopped; 4 garlic cloves, chopped; 4 dried pequin chilies; 1 tablespoon ground cumin; 1 teaspoon dried oregano; 1/2 teaspoon ground clove; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 2 teaspoons kosher salt (1 teaspoon table salt; freshly ground black pepper; 2 pounds ground beef; 2 tablespoons lime juice; 2 big bags Fritos or individual snack-sized Fritos, at least for each person; 8 ounces shredded cheese

Why it works: Cumin and oregano match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 983 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Cumin + oreganotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together983 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Cumin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

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

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, clove, cumin, oregano, cinnamon, pepper, beef):

Eggplantfits better
Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, clove, cumin, oregano, cinnamon, pepper, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Oregano	1 tsp dried (1.8g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Seed	not in our table	0

Frito Pie with 1 Hour Texas Chili