Skip to main content
Main

Fufu

Fufu made from boiled plantains mashed with butter, garlic, and green onions.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Garlic and onion 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 ↓

Fufu

Time20 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel plantains and slice into 1-inch pieces.

  2. Bring water to a boil.

Cook and mash

  1. Add plantain pieces and cook on medium-high for 20 minutes until most water is absorbed.

  2. Add butter and garlic to plantains.

  3. Mash with a potato masher.

Serve

  1. Garnish with green onions and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

157Calories
2 gProtein
12 gFat
12 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Waternot in our table0
Plantainnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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.

  1. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + garlictop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,572 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

Plantains
Their starch becomes the thick, dense body of the fufu when cooked and mashed.
Butter
Adds fat, which makes the mashed plantain smoother and richer in flavour.
Garlic
Contributes aroma and savoury flavour to the mashed plantain.

The step that matters

Cook until most water is absorbed. Plantain starch needs to be fully cooked and the excess water driven off so the mash holds together rather than turning loose or soupy. Stopping too early leaves the texture watery and sticky.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, garlic, onion):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, garlic, onion. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes