Name: Kimchi and Shrimp Fried Rice Recipe
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; 8 ounces medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces; Kosher salt; Freshly ground black pepper; 1 1/4 cups; drained and coarsely chopped; 1 teaspoon Korean chile paste; 4 cups steamed; or; rice, chilled; 1 tablespoon fish sauce; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 2 large eggs, lightly beaten; 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more as needed; 1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil; 2 medium scallions, minced (white and light green parts only); 1 medium lime, cut into 6 wedges, for serving

Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.

Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Rice + sesametop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together984 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lime + sesametop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together431 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Rice + limetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,014 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Shrimp + sesametop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

Swap the sesame

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, pepper, rice, fish sauce, sauce, egg, lime):

Sesamethe original
Beansfits about as well
Peanutfits about as well
Cashew nutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, pepper, rice, fish sauce, sauce, egg, lime. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Kimchi and Shrimp Fried Rice Recipe