Name: Barbecue Beef with Chimichurri Salsa
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1 onion , sliced; 1 of each green, yellow and red peppers , cut into strips; 2 small sprigs of thyme; 1 garlic clove , crushed; olive oil; 2 slices serrano ham , chopped; 200g pinto beans , cooked; 1 tomato , peeled, seeded and diced; 4 x 200g pieces beef fillet; 2 tbsp guajillo dry pepper powder; 7 garlic cloves; 3 tbsp Spanish paprika; 3 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 tbsp (dried or in brine) pink peppercorns , crushed well; 2 tbsp chopped oregano; 2 tbsp chopped parsley; olive oil

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).
Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + olivetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,948 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

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

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, thyme, garlic, clove, olive, ham):

Chickpeafits about as well
Black-eyed peafits about as well
Lentilsfits about as well
Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, thyme, garlic, clove, olive, ham. 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
Pinto Bean	1/2 cup (86g) canned	122
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Oregano	1 tsp dried (1.8g)	5
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1

Barbecue Beef with Chimichurri Salsa