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Sesame-Crusted Tuna with Greens

Sesame seeds form a crispy coating on these tuna steaks, which are cooked rare and then sliced and served over a bed of baby greens.

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Why it works: Rice and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 643 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4.

Ingredients

Contains: peanut, soy, fish, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Rice + sesametop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Ginger + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Ginger + sesametop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Onion + sesametop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, onion, rice, vinegar, sauce, honey, sesame):

  1. Mangobetter flavor fit
  2. Coconutbetter flavor fit
  3. Limebetter flavor fit
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, onion, rice, vinegar, sauce, honey, sesame. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).