Name: Pineapple, Corn and Mango Salsa
Ingredients: 1 cup canned crushed pineapple (packed in its own juices), drained; ½ medium mango, diced; ½ cup frozen corn, thawed; ½ cup chopped tomatoes; ¼ cup minced parsley; 3 tbsp minced red onion; salt, cayenne pepper and cumin, to taste

Why it works: Mango and corn share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 48 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

1 cup canned crushed pineapple (packed in its own juices), drained
½ medium mango, diced
½ cup frozen corn, thawed
½ cup chopped tomatoes
¼ cup minced parsley
3 tbsp minced red onion
salt, cayenne pepper and cumin, to taste

Also mentioned in the method: tofu, fish

Directions

Make the salsa

In a medium bowl, mix pineapple, mango, corn, tomatoes, parsley and onion.
Season with salt, cayenne and cumin, to taste.

Serve

Serve over grilled fish, chicken or tofu.

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.

Mango + corntop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together48 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pineapple + mangotop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together224 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, sweet).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together34,118 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together3,272 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together821 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Crushed pineapple: Adds sweetness and juicy body, with acidity that balances the savory seasonings.
Mango: Contributes sweetness and soft, juicy texture to the salsa.
Tomatoes: Add moisture, acidity and fresh bulk to the salsa.
Red onion: Adds sharp pungency that cuts through the sweetness of the fruit.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, mango, corn, tomato, parsley, pepper, cumin):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Carrotbetter flavor fit
Potatobetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, mango, corn, tomato, parsley, pepper, cumin. 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.