Name: Black Beans and Yellow Rice
Ingredients: 6 slices bacon, diced; 1 cup chopped onion; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 cup uncooked rice; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric; 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper; 2 cups water; 1 medium fresh tomato, chopped; 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper; 1 cup diced fully-cooked ham (optional); 1 cup dried black beans, cooked and well-seasoned

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).
Rice + turmerictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,941 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,876 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Absorbs the water as it simmers, forming the bulk and texture of the dish.
Bacon: Its rendered fat carries flavor into the skillet for the onion, garlic and rice.
Ground turmeric: Gives the rice its yellow color and a mildly earthy aroma.
Dried black beans: Provide the main protein and hearty body to the plate alongside the rice.
Onion: Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the flavor base of the rice.

The step that matters

Simmer covered until the liquid is absorbed. Keeping the lid on traps steam so the rice cooks through evenly. Lifting it or cooking too hot can leave rice unevenly done or scorched on the bottom.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, rice, turmeric, pepper, tomato, ham):

Cuminfits better
Corianderfits better
Thymefits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, rice, turmeric, pepper, tomato, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Black Bean	1/2 cup canned (120g) drained	114
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Green Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Black Beans and Yellow Rice