Name: Marie's® Steak Carnitas and Chipotle Coleslaw
Cook time: 6 h 20 min
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons chili powder; 1 teaspoon onion powder; 1 ¼ teaspoons cumin; ½ teaspoon garlic powder; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon ground black pepper; 2 pounds flank steak; 1 yellow onion , chopped; 1 green bell pepper , chopped; 1 red bell pepper , chopped; 2 jalapeño peppers , seeded and chopped; 4 cups cabbage , thinly sliced; ½ onion , thinly sliced; ¾ cup; Salt and ground black pepper, to taste; Corn or flour tortillas; 2 avocados , sliced; Handful of cilantro , chopped; 2 limes , sliced into wedges

Why it works: Avocado and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,117 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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.

Avocado + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,117 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cumin + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,216 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Cumin + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, cumin, garlic, pepper, corn, avocado, lime):

Spinachfits better
Capsicumfits better
Kalefits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, cumin, garlic, pepper, corn, avocado, lime. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Avocado	1 medium (150g)	240
Tortilla	1 medium flour (45g)	140
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Marie's® Steak Carnitas and Chipotle Coleslaw