Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Enchiladas
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the chile sauce
Make a chile sauce by toasting the chiles in the oven, soaking them in water, grinding to a pulp, straining to remove skin, and mixing with salt and vinegar.
Fry the chile mixture with a little butter.
Assemble and bake
Make thin cornmeal pancakes about 6 inches across.
Dip each pancake into the chile mixture and layer on a plate with chopped onion, grated cheese, and halved olives.
Continue layering pancakes with the chile mixture and toppings as desired.
Pour the remaining chile mixture over the top and bake in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) for about 3 minutes.
Serve
Serve hot, cutting like a layer cake or folding each pancake like a turnover.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
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.
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Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cheese + olivetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,802 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
-
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,887 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red chiles
- Provide the main flavor and red color of the sauce.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the thin pancakes that give the dish its structure.
- Grated cheese
- Melts during baking to bind the layers together.
- Butter
- Adds fat to the frying chile mixture, carrying flavor and smoothing the sauce.
The step that matters
Dip each pancake into the chile mixture. Cornmeal pancakes absorb liquid quickly, so a brief, even dip keeps them moist without turning them soggy or tearing them during layering.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, olive, butter):
- Tomatofits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, olive, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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