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Beef and Cheddar Soft Tacos

"It couldn't be easier to make these delicious beef tacos that get great flavor from cheddar cheese soup and salsa."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheddar cheese and lettuce work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 296 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep5 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it up, until no pink remains and it reaches 160°F (71°C), about 6 to 8 minutes.

  2. Drain off excess fat from the skillet, then reduce heat to medium.

  3. Stir in the condensed cheddar cheese soup and the chunky salsa. Simmer gently, stirring often, until hot and creamy, about 4 to 5 minutes.

  4. Warm the flour tortillas according to package directions until soft and pliable.

  5. Spoon the beef and cheddar mixture down the center of each tortilla.

  6. Top with shredded lettuce, roll up or fold, and serve right away.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Cheddar cheese + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together296 recipes

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

  2. Beef + cheddar cheesetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together951 recipes

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

  3. Flour + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,205 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cheddar cheese + flourtop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together2,509 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together661 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 lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, cheddar cheese, flour):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Chivebetter flavor fit
  3. Onionbetter flavor fit
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cheddar cheese, flour. 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).