Why it works: Mango and jicama work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 20 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the corn
Cook corn in a pot of boiling salted water for 2 minutes.
Drain and cool the corn.
Cut off enough kernels to measure 4 cups, reserving the remaining corn for another use.
Place the corn in a medium bowl.
Make the salad
Add the mangoes, jicama, red onion, cilantro, and lime juice.
Toss to combine.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Chill and serve
Cover and refrigerate until cold. Can be prepared 3 hours ahead.
Serve cold.
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.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
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.
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Mango + jicamatop 4% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together20 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Mango + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together506 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
-
Jicama + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together80 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Corn + limetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together773 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Corn + mangotop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together48 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh corn
- Provides the sweet, tender kernels that form the body of the salad.
- Mangoes
- Add sweetness and juicy moisture to the salad.
- Jicama
- Adds a crisp, crunchy texture that stays firm when chilled.
- Red onion
- Adds sharp pungency that balances the sweet fruit and corn.
- Lime juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavors and balances sweetness.
The step that matters
Cook the corn briefly and cool it fully. A short boil in salted water sets the corn's sweetness and crisp texture, while thorough cooling keeps the kernels from warming the mango and jicama and softening the salad.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, mango, jicama, lime):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, mango, jicama, lime. 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).
“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.
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