Name: Chicken and Beef Saté
Ingredients: 1¾ cups coconut milk; 3 lemongrass stalks, tough outer leaves removed, trimmed, first 4 inchesfrom root end chopped; ½ cup finely chopped shallot; 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste; 2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce (nuoc nam or nam pla); 1 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar; 1½ tablespoons finely chopped garlic; 2 teaspoons coarse salt; 1 teaspoon ground cumin; 1 teaspoon turmeric; 1 (1½ pounds) skirt steak, cut crosswise into 24 (1-by-5-inch) strips; 1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut diagonally into 18 (1-by-5-inch) strips; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus additional for grill; 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon purchased red curry paste; 1 cup roasted salted peanuts, finely ground; ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro; 42 (8-inch-long) bamboo skewers (soaked in water 30 minutes); ⅓ cup seasoned rice vinegar; 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Why it works: Lime and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,216 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.

Lime + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,216 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Coconut + limetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together934 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Shallot + cumintop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together90 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, milk, shallot, lime, fish sauce, sugar, cumin):

Turmericfits better
Corianderfits better
Cardamomfits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, milk, shallot, lime, fish sauce, sugar, cumin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Beef	100g cooked	250
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Peanut	1 oz (28g)	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Lemongrass	1 tbsp (6g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Chicken and Beef Saté