Name: Puerto Rican-style Roast Pork
Ingredients: ham shank; 3 tbsp olive oil; 1 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 tbsp minced fresh garlic; 1½ tsp oregano leaves, crumbled fine; 1 tsp salt; ¾ tsp ground cumin; ½ tsp pepper; 2 large baking potatoes, scrubbed, cut lengthwise in 8 wedges; 1 large red onion cut in 8 wedges; 1 yellow summer squash, cut in 1 inch slices

Why it works: Oregano and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 983 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Oregano + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together983 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + oreganotop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,756 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Olive + oreganotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,443 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ham shank: Is the main cut of meat, which becomes tender and juicy over a long, slow roast.
Olive oil: Carries the seasoning onto the meat and helps the surface brown and carry flavour.
Red wine vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the marinade and helps tenderise the surface of the meat.
Garlic: Adds sharp aroma and savoury flavour that deepens during roasting.
Baking potatoes: Absorb roasting drippings, becoming soft inside and browned outside.

The step that matters

Marinate the ham shank before roasting. Marinating for at least 4 hours or overnight lets the seasoning penetrate the meat and flavour it throughout, which a quick brush at roasting time cannot do.

Swap the cumin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, olive, red wine, vinegar, garlic, oregano, pepper):

Rosemaryfits better
Thymefits better
Basilfits better
Cuminthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, olive, red wine, vinegar, garlic, oregano, pepper. 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
Pork	100g cooked	242
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Oregano	1 tsp dried (1.8g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pumpkin	not in our table	0

Puerto Rican-style Roast Pork