Name: Seriously Meatless: Homemade Salsa Verde
Ingredients: Up to 8 serrano chiles or up to 3 jalapenos, stems removed (the upper end of these ranges will be very hot!); 1 pound tomatillos (about 1 dozen) or two 13-ounces cans, drained; 1/2 small white onion, roughly chopped; 1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 cup packed cilantro springs and/or A few leaves of epazote, and/or 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (if frying)

Why it works: Jalapeno and epazote share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 6 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Up to 8 serrano chiles or up to 3 jalapenos, stems removed (the upper end of these ranges will be very hot!)
1 pound tomatillos (about 1 dozen) or two 13-ounces cans, drained
1/2 small white onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup packed cilantro springs and/or A few leaves of epazote, and/or 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (if frying)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By seriouseats. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Jalapeno + epazotetop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together6 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together29,030 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Jalapeno + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together1,700 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Garlic + epazotetop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Jalapeno + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together2,250 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the epazote

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (jalapeno, onion, garlic):

Cuminbetter flavor fit
Corianderbetter flavor fit
Epazotethe original
Oreganoabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against jalapeno, onion, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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