Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Remains of Cold Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Remove fat and gristle from the meat and chop it into tiny squares.
Add pepper, coarse sea salt, curry powder, sugar, and lime juice. Stir well.
Place the mixture on a warm stove in a basin.
Cook spaghetti in slightly salted boiling water for about 8 minutes, then drain.
Stand the drained spaghetti over a slow fire, stirring frequently.
In a frying pan, cook washed and dried raisins in a little butter over a slow fire until browned and crisp.
Slice small onions and garlic thinly, then fry in a little butter until nearly browned.
Add the chopped meat to the onions and garlic, stirring constantly until browned and crisp.
Place the dry spaghetti on a dish, add the meat mixture in the center, and top with raisins.
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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Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,491 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Lime + clovetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together909 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,070 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 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
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, sugar, lime, butter, onion, clove):
- Avocadofits better
- Lemonfits better
- Mangofits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, sugar, lime, butter, onion, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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