Name: Guajillo-Spiked Pork-and-Potato Tacos
Ingredients: 8 medium dried guajillo chilies, about 2 oz.; total, stemmed, seeded and torn into flat; pieces; 1 cup water; 4 to 6 ripe plum tomatoes, about 12 oz. total,; roughly chopped; 3 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 1 1/2 Tbs. vegetable oil or rich-tasting pork lard; 1 lb. lean boneless pork (preferably from the; shoulder), cut into 1/2-inch cubes; 3 cups water; 1 tsp. salt, plus more, to taste; 4 medium boiling potatoes, such as red; skinned, about 1 lb. total, cut into 1/2-inch; cubes; 3 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro; 12 to 16 fresh (see related recipe at right); or store-bought corn tortillas, warmed

Why it works: Tomato and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,076 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.

Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,517 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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 (plum, tomato, garlic, pork, potato, corn):

Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Corianderfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, tomato, garlic, pork, potato, corn. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Corn Tortilla	1 medium flour (45g)	140
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Guajillo-Spiked Pork-and-Potato Tacos