Name: Hamburger Fried Rice
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 3 tbsp canola oil for frying; 4 cloves garlic , sliced 0.5 cm thick; 4 cloves red onion , sliced 0.5 cm thick; 3 cm ginger , peeled and minced; 2 red chillies , minced; 400 g hamburger meat , diced; 3 scallion , cut into 1 cm pieces; 2 celery stalks, minced; 600 g cooked rice; 2 tbsp salt; 1 tbsp black pepper; 2 tbsp black soy sauce

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 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.

Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,668 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hamburger meat: Provides savoury protein and browns in the pan, building much of the dish's meaty flavour.
Cooked rice: Forms the bulk of the dish; cooked rice that has been chilled fries into separate grains rather than clumping.
Black soy sauce: Adds dark colour and deep, savoury flavour as it caramelises slightly in the hot pan.
Garlic: Frying in hot oil releases aromatic compounds that flavour the oil and the whole dish.
Red onion: Softens and sweetens as it fries, adding aromatic depth to the base.

The step that matters

Frying the aromatics in very hot oil. Garlic and onion scorch quickly in very hot oil, turning bitter. Stirring every 20 seconds keeps them fragrant and evenly cooked before the meat goes in.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (canola oil, garlic, onion, ginger, meat, celery, rice):

Turmericfits better
Cuminfits better
Thymefits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against canola oil, garlic, onion, ginger, meat, celery, rice. 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
Beef	100g cooked	250
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Celery Stalks	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Meat	not in our table	0

Hamburger Fried Rice