Skip to main content

Beef Cheek Tacos

Beef cheeks that are brined, then braised, and finally chopped, seared and stuffed into warm flour tortillas. These are now my go-to tacos.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Beef Cheek Tacos

Why it works: Lime and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 937 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Beef Cheek Tacos

Serves 8
Prep12 hr
Cook3 hr

Ingredients

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1105Calories
45 gProtein
34 gFat
154 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 14 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Tortilla1 medium flour (45g)140
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Seednot in our table0
Taconot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lime + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together937 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Lime + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together909 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Lime + garlictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,411 recipes

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

  5. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lime, sugar, clove, garlic, beef, canola oil, flour):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lime, sugar, clove, garlic, beef, canola oil, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.