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Aztec Pudding

A casserole of tortillas layered with tomato sauce, cheese, and sour cream, baked until bubbly.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and oregano match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 983 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven350°F
Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Fry onion and garlic in oil.

  2. Add tomato sauce, spices, water, and bouillon cube.

  3. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fry tortillas.

  2. Dip tortillas in sauce.

  3. Layer tortillas, sauce, cheese, and sour cream in a casserole.

  4. Repeat layers.

  5. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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.

  1. Cumin + oreganotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Marjoram + oreganotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together166 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Tomato + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,767 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,272 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Tortillas
Form the structure of the casserole, soaking up sauce to become soft and layered.
Cheddar cheese
Melts into the layers to bind them and add richness and browning on top.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tang, keeping the layers creamy rather than dry.
Tomato sauce
Provides the main liquid and acidity that flavours and moistens the tortillas.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth to the base sauce when fried until soft.

The step that matters

Dip tortillas in sauce. Tortillas that are dipped too long turn mushy, while those barely dipped stay dry and tough. A brief, even dip softens them enough to hold layers together during baking.

Flavor stand-ins for the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, tomato, sauce, beef, cumin, oregano):

  1. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  2. Basilbetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, tomato, sauce, beef, cumin, oregano. 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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