Name: Mango Puree
Ingredients: 2 ripe mangoes; 1 teaspoon sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon ground fresh mint leaves; ¼ teaspoon ground ginger; 1 teaspoon ground chillies

Why it works: Mint and ginger work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 647 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mango Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

Peel the mangoes and cut them in half, removing the stones.
Place the mango halves in a mortar and bruise well.

Make the puree

Add sugar, salt, ground mint, ground ginger, and ground chillies.
Pound the mixture until well combined and smooth.

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.

Mint + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mango + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together280 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Mango + minttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together148 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Mango + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together561 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

What each ingredient does

Mangoes: Provide the main pulp, body and fruity flavour of the puree.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the fruit and the chillies.
Mint leaves: Add a fresh, aromatic herbal note.
Ginger: Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the mango.
Chillies: Add heat to the puree.