Name: Carne Mechada Sauce
Ingredients: 2 ea Green peppers, chopped; 1 T Olive oil; 1 ea Pimentoes, small can; 2 ea Onions, chopped; 2 ea Cans tomatoes, 12 oz.; 1 T Worchesterchire

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 15,539 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Carne Mechada Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer shredded meat with above sauce, add 1/2 t thyme, 1/4 t pepper,
3 bay leaves, 1 t oregano, 1 t worchesterchire, 1/2 t cumin, salt to

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together29,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together68,474 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, olive, tomato):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Eggplantbetter flavor fit
Spinachbetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, tomato. 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).