Name: Cheesy Squash Bake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 5 whole Small Yellow Squash, Sliced; 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil; ½ whole Onion, Chopped; ½ whole Green Pepper, Chopped; 1 whole Hot Pepper, Stem And Seeds Removed Then Chopped; 1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic; ½ teaspoons Seasoned Salt; ½ teaspoons Ground Black Pepper; 1 cup Saltine Crackers, Crushed; ¼ cups Butter, Melted; 1 Tablespoon Dried Parsley; 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, Shredded

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).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, pepper, garlic, butter, cheddar cheese):

Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
Parsleythe original
Cuminabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, pepper, garlic, butter, cheddar cheese. 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).

Cheesy Squash Bake