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Sauce

Firecracker Marinade

A spicy habanero-based sauce made with lemon, garlic, wine, butter, and olive oil.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Firecracker Marinade

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Run everything in a blender until smooth.

  2. Keep refrigerated for up to 1 ½ weeks.

  3. Shake well before using.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

276Calories
1 gProtein
26 gFat
8 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

  5. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Habanero chiles
Provides the heat and fruity, floral chile flavor that defines the marinade.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps balance the richness of the fats.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma and savory depth.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Extra-virgin olive oil
Adds fat that carries the flavors and keeps the marinade fluid.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity that lightly tenderizes and flavors the food.

The step that matters

Shake well before using. Butter and oil separate and partly solidify when the marinade is chilled. Shaking recombines the emulsified blend so each application carries an even mix of fat, acid, and chile.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, lemon, white wine, butter, olive):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, lemon, white wine, butter, olive. 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.

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