Name: Cocoanut Chutney
Ingredients: 1 cup pounded cocoanut; 2 tablespoons minced onion; 1 green chili, minced; 1 teaspoon green ginger, minced; 1 clove garlic, minced; 2 tablespoons tamarind juice; ¼ teaspoon red pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Ginger and clove 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 ↓

Cocoanut Chutney

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine the pounded coconut, minced onion, green chili, green ginger, and garlic.
Moisten the mixture with tamarind juice. Season with red pepper and salt, and mix thoroughly.
Serve in a saucer.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together325 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clove + tamarindtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together145 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Pounded coconut: Forms the bulk of the chutney and provides moisture and a mild, sweet body.
Tamarind juice: Adds sourness and moisture, balancing the richness of the coconut.
Green chili: Adds heat and sharpness to the chutney.
Minced onion: Adds sharp, savory flavor and aromatic bite.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, clove, garlic, tamarind, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Eggplantfits better
Carrotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, clove, garlic, tamarind, pepper. 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.