Name: Sweet and Sour Shrimp with Oranges
Ingredients: 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped; 1 medium green bell pepper, coarsely chopped; 3/4 cup ketchup (no salt added); 1/2 lemon, peeled and juiced; 1 tbsp. cornstarch; 3 tbsps. brown sugar; 1/2 cup fresh squeeze orange juice; 1/4 tsp. ground ginger or 2 tsps. fresh grated ginger root; 3 oranges, peeled, cut into bite-size pieces; 20 small to medium cook shrimp, with tails and shells removed (about 7 ozs.); 3 cups cooked rice (no salt added); Chopped cilantro or parsley

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,833 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ketchup + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together260 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp: Provides the main protein, which turns opaque and firm as it cooks.
Cornstarch: Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it a glossy, clinging body.
Ketchup: Forms the tomato-based sauce base, adding sweetness and acidity.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a molasses flavor that balances the tang of the sauce.
Orange juice: Adds fruity sweetness and acidity while thinning the sauce.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its sweetness.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be fully dispersed in the liquid before heating and stirred while it heats. Otherwise it forms lumps and does not thicken evenly, since starch granules swell and thicken only when they reach a simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, ketchup, lemon, sugar, orange, ginger, shrimp):

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, ketchup, lemon, sugar, orange, ginger, shrimp. 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
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Sweet and Sour Shrimp with Oranges