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Ancho-Garlic Fish Tacos with Citrus-Mint Cabbage Slaw

In this recipe I season the fish with an ancho-garlic sauce, and then bake the fish (instead of frying) to keep the meal light. The refreshing slaw has both sweet and savory going on, providing tons of flavor along with crunch.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,519 recipes mention both. Both carry phellandrene, which smells minty. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep18 min
Cook12 min

Ingredients

Contains: fish (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 tastykitchen. 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. Garlic + minttop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  2. Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Red wine + clovetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together636 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, fish, olive, red wine, vinegar, maple syrup, mustard):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  3. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, fish, olive, red wine, vinegar, maple syrup, mustard. 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).