Name: Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients: Three 15 1/2 ounce cans black beans (about 4 1/2 cups), rinsed and drained; 1 cup drained canned tomatoes, chopped; 1 1/4 cups chopped onion; 1/2 cup minced shallot; 4 garlic cloves minced; 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons ground cumin; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter; 4 cups beef broth; a 16-ounce can pumpkin puree (about 1 1/2 cups); 1/2 cup dry Sherry; 1/2 pound cooked ham, cut into 1/8-inch dice; 3 to 4 tablespoons Sherry vinegar

Why it works: Beans and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,188 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. 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.

Beans + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,188 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,713 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,272 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, tomato, onion, shallot, garlic, cumin, pepper):

Turmericfits better
Oreganofits better
Corianderfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, tomato, onion, shallot, garlic, cumin, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pork	100g cooked	242
Black Bean	1/2 cup canned (120g) drained	114
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pumpkin	not in our table	0

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup