Name: Native Jollof Rice
Ingredients: A few pieces of tomato; 2 onions; A few fresh Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers (ata rodo); ½ milk cup cround crayfish; Fermented locust bean (iru); Palm oil; Meat stock or water; Salt to taste; 4 pieces bouillon cubes (or the equivalent amount of powder); 3 milk cups uncooked rice; 2 tins of cooked titus fish (optional); Beef , turkey , and/or chicken meat (optional), boiled; Sliced scent leaf (optional)

Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. 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.

Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes (in the method): Cooking down the paste builds a deep, rich colour and concentrated tomato flavour.
Onions: Softened and cooked down, they add sweetness and savoury depth to the base.
Rice: Absorbs the seasoned stock as it cooks, giving the dish its body and texture.
Palm oil: Adds fat and a characteristic colour and aroma to the cooking base.
Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers: Provide heat and fruity aroma to the tomato base.
Bouillon cubes: Add salt and savoury umami flavour to the cooking stock.

The step that matters

Cooking the tomato paste until the water fully evaporates. If the paste is not cooked down enough, excess water dilutes the flavour and the rice turns soggy or steamed rather than separate. Frying the paste concentrates its sugars and deepens its colour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, milk, crayfish, meat, rice, fish):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, milk, crayfish, meat, rice, fish. 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
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Scotch	not in our table	0
Crayfish	not in our table	0
Bean	not in our table	0
Meat	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Leaf	not in our table	0

Native Jollof Rice