Name: Corn and Tasso Maque Choux
Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 4 ears of corn (preferably bicolored), shucked, divided; Olive oil; Coarse kosher salt; Cayenne pepper; 3 tablespoons butter, divided; 1/4 cup (1 ounce) matchstick-size strips tasso or Black Forest ham; 1/2 cup sliced shallots; 1/4 cup diced seeded fresh poblano chile; 1/4 cup chopped celery; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme; 1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced; 3 cups diced seeded red tomatoes; 3 green onions, thinly sliced; Ingredient info: is an intensely flavored Cajun-style smoked meat. It's available at some supermarkets and specialty foods stores. Fresh poblano chiles (often called pasillas) are sold at some supermarkets and specialty foods stores, at farmers' markets, and at Latin markets.

Why it works: Shallot and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,476 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. 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.

Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,476 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,193 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,948 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, olive, pepper, butter, ham, celery, thyme):

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Carrotfits better
Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, olive, pepper, butter, ham, celery, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Meat	not in our table	0

Corn and Tasso Maque Choux