Name: Southwestern Beef and Peppers
Ingredients: 1/4 tsp. garlic powder; 1/2 tsp. onion powder; 1/2 tsp. ground cumin; 1 tsp. chili powder; 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper; 1 tsp. kosher salt, plus more, to taste; 1 1/2 lb. skirt steak; 1/2 large red onion, sliced; 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and sliced; 1 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and sliced; 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and sliced; 2 fresno or jalapeño peppers, cut into thin wheels; 1 Tbs. olive oil

Why it works: Garlic and onion 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Cumin + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,853 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Onion + cumintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,498 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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, cumin, pepper, olive):

Spinachfits better
Tomatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, cumin, pepper, olive. 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
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Southwestern Beef and Peppers