Name: The Pasta of the Day
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 80g Tagliatelle; 1 dsp oil; 100g lean minced beef; hand full of grated carrot; 1/2 medium onion; 1 clove of garlic; 1/2 tsp italian mixed herbs; 200 g chopped caned tomatoes; 1 dsp tomatoe puree; 1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinergar; parmesan cheese

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, garlic, tomato, parmesan cheese):

Cuminbetter flavor fit
Celerybetter flavor fit
Oreganobetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, garlic, tomato, parmesan cheese. 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).

The Pasta of the Day