Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,923 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tsebhi Shiro
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Shell groundnuts, clean and grind into flour.
Cook
Put the other ingredients into a saucepan with 500cc of water and bring it to the boil.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve with injera.
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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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Groundnuts
- Ground into flour, they thicken the stew and give it a rich, nutty body.
- Butter
- Adds fat, which carries flavour and gives the stew a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
- Tomato paste
- Adds concentrated acidity and savoury depth, colouring the stew and balancing the nuts.
- Onions
- Soften during simmering, adding sweetness and aromatic body to the stew.
Flavor stand-ins for the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, pepper):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Chivebetter flavor fit
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, pepper. 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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