Name: Taiwanese Fried Rice
Ingredients: 10 medium size mushrooms, chopped; 1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced; 3 eggs, or as needed; 4 pieces of garlic, crushed; 1 1/2 thumb size pieces of ginger, finely chopped; 3 spicy red chilli peppers cut into thin strips; 4 breakfast bowl size servings of rice; 1 tin of tuna, drained.; 4 tablespoons soy sauce; Coriander, 1 handful or as needed; Oil for Stir-frying, as needed

Why it works: Ginger and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. 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.

Ginger + coriandertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Garlic + coriandertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,474 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,949 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,700 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Scramble into soft curds that add richness and bind the rice together.
Rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the soy sauce and cooking fats.
Soy sauce: Adds salt and savoury depth, and helps brown the rice slightly in the hot wok.
Mushrooms: Release moisture and savoury umami flavour as they cook down in the wok.
Tuna: Adds savoury, meaty protein that contributes flavour and texture to the rice.
Garlic: Provides pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it cooks in hot oil.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs until just scrambled. Eggs cook quickly and turn rubbery or dry if overcooked. Stopping while they are still soft keeps them tender and lets them coat the rice evenly when it is added.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, pepper, egg, ginger, rice, sauce, coriander):

Turmericfits better
Cuminfits better
Cardamomfits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, pepper, egg, ginger, rice, sauce, coriander. 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
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Coriander	not in our table	0

Taiwanese Fried Rice