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 ↓
Ajiaco Criollo Cuban Creole Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meats
Cover the tasajo with cold water and soak it for at least 8 hours. (No need to refrigerate.)
Change the water and continue soaking for another hour.
Drain again and rinse under cold running water.
Put the tasajo in a large, heavy pot and add about 6 quarts of water.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
Add the pork, beef brisket, and bay leaf, and let the three meats cook together until tender.
Remove the pot from heat and skim as much fat as possible from the broth. (Optional: refrigerate overnight to remove fat.)
Make the sofrito
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and sauté the onions and green pepper until the onions are translucent, about 3 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes more.
Add the pepper, cumin, and tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the sofrito to the broth and simmer, covered, while preparing the vegetables.
Complete the stew
Peel the malanga, boniato, name, yucca, and calabaza and cube them.
Cut the corn and green plantains into 1 1/2-inch pieces.
With a knife slit the skin of each piece of green plantain by opening it away from the center as if you were taking off a coat.
Sprinkle the plantain pieces with lime juice.
Slit the semi-ripe and ripe plantains lengthwise and slice them crosswise into 1 1/2-inch rounds.
Do not remove their skins or they will disintegrate in the stew.
Add the green plantains to the simmering stew.
After about 15 minutes, add the semi-ripe plantains.
After another 15 minutes, add the ripe plantains and let them simmer for about 10 minutes.
Serve hot in soup plates or, cocido-style, with the meats, vegetables, and broth in separate dishes. (Each diner removes the skin from the semi-ripe and ripe plantains themselves.)
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 12 of 15 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 12 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Beef | 100g cooked | 250 |
| Pork | 100g cooked | 242 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Corn | 1/2 cup kernels (82g) | 77 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Bell Pepper | 1 medium (119g) | 31 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Lime | juice of 1 lime (44ml) | 11 |
| Cumin | 1 tsp ground (2.1g) | 8 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Bay Leaf | 1 leaf (0.6g) | 2 |
| Meat | not in our table | 0 |
| Stew | not in our table | 0 |
| Plantain | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,082 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
-
Clove + cumintop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,306 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Tasajo
- Long soaking and simmering make it tender and seasons the broth with its salty, beefy flavor.
- Beef brisket
- Slow cooking breaks down connective tissue, giving the broth body and the meat tenderness.
- Onions
- Softened in oil, they build sweetness and a flavorful base for the sofrito.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and moisture, rounding out the sofrito and thickening the stew.
- Malanga
- Starchy tubers that thicken the broth as they cook and give the stew substance.
- Green plantains
- Firm and starchy, they hold their shape in the stew and add body to the broth.
The step that matters
Skim the fat from the broth. Fat rendered from the meats can make the broth greasy and heavy; removing it while hot or chilled gives a cleaner-tasting stew.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, meat, onion, pepper, garlic, cumin):
- Thymefits better
- Oreganofits better
- Turmericfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, meat, onion, pepper, garlic, cumin. 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.
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