Name: French Canadian Pâté Chinois
Ingredients: flank steak, or other inexpensive cut of beef (or some veggie ground round, if you want this to be vegetarian); onion (1 medium onion per 2 people); oregano, to taste; potatoes (1 large or 2 small potatoes per person); butter (or vegetable oil and / or vegetable stock); salt and pepper to taste; cream (optional, for creamier mashed potatoes); 1 can of cream corn (more if you prefer); paprika; ketchup and / or applesauce (to taste, as an accompaniment)

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Oregano + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,449 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Oregano + corntop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together360 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Flank steak: Provides the savoury meat base of the filling, browning as it fries.
Onion: Softens and sweetens as it sweats, adding aroma to the meat filling.
Potatoes: Form the mashed topping that sets and browns in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the frying and the mashed potatoes.
Cream: Makes the mashed potatoes smoother and creamier.
Cream corn: Adds sweetness and moisture as a middle layer between meat and potatoes.

The step that matters

Frying the meat until nearly cooked through. Meat that is not browned well can taste bland and steam in the dish. Browning builds flavour through the Maillard reaction, and the meat is cooked further in the oven, so stopping at nearly done keeps it from drying out.

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, oregano, butter, pepper, cream, corn):

Potatothe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Tomatofits less well
Carrotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, oregano, butter, pepper, cream, corn. 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
Beef	100g cooked	250
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Oregano	1 tsp dried (1.8g)	5
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

French Canadian Pâté Chinois