Why it works: Sambal and lime work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 41 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 6Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, soy, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →
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.
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Sambal + limetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together41 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Coriander + limetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,536 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Coriander + gingertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,504 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Ginger + limetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,621 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lime + fish saucetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together798 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sambal, butter, coriander, ginger, lime, fish sauce):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sambal, butter, coriander, ginger, lime, fish sauce. 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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