Name: Crabmeat Risotto with Peas and Mint
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 5 to 6 cups vegetable stock or water; 1 cup dry white wine; 3 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice; Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper; 3 cups fresh or frozen peas; 1 bunch scallions, white parts and 2 inches of the green tops, cut into thin rounds; 6 to 8 ounces fresh crabmeat, preferably lump crabmeat; 4 to 6 leaves of fresh mint, roughly chopped, plus a few whole leaves for garnish; 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest; About 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, butter, onion, garlic, clove, rice, pepper):

Chickpeafits better
Beansfits better
Black-eyed peafits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, butter, onion, garlic, clove, rice, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Peppermint	not in our table	0

Crabmeat Risotto with Peas and Mint