Name: Susans Citrus Scallop Recipe
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 18 large fresh sea scallops; 175 ml freshly squeezed orange juice; 15 ml grapefruit bitters (optional); 75 ml freshly squeezed lime juice; 50 ml apple cider vinegar; 1 pink grapefruit; 2 navel oranges; 1 lime; 50 ml finely diced red onion; 5 or 10 ml deseeded & finely diced re chili pepper (optional); 50 ml finely chopped cilantro; Life Brand Tortilla Chips Multigrain with Flax Seeds

Why it works: Orange and grapefruit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 233 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.

Orange + grapefruittop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together233 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Grapefruit + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together70 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together937 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Grapefruit + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together117 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Swap the grapefruit

The recipe marks grapefruit as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (scallop, orange, lime, apple cider vinegar, onion, pepper):

Lemonfits better
Avocadofits better
Mangofits about as well
Grapefruitthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against scallop, orange, lime, apple cider vinegar, onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Tortilla Chip	1 medium flour (45g)	140
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Flax Seed	1 tbsp (10g) ground	55
Grapefruit	1/2 fruit (123g)	52
Red Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1

Susans Citrus Scallop Recipe