Why it works: Mango and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 126 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Stewed Ripe Mango
Ingredients
Directions
Peel and slice the ripe mangoes.
Add sugar and cinnamon to the mango slices.
Simmer slowly until the mixture is quite dark.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
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.
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Mango + cinnamontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together126 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Mango + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together561 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mango
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Mangothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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