Name: Mango BBQ'd-Grilled Swordfish
Yield: Serves 4, plus leftover BBQ sauce
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons pure olive oil; 1/2 large red onion, chopped; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1/4 cup fresh orange juice; 1 tablespoon ground black pepper; 1/2 cup white wine vinegar; 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar; 1/2 tablespoon Hungarian hot paprika; One 14-ounce can peeled plum tomatoes, chopped; 1 1/2 cups diced ripe mango; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1/4 cup Creole or Dijon mustard; 1/4 cup molasses; 1 teaspoon chili powder; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce; 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil; 1/2 tablespoon freshly toasted and ground cumin seeds; Four 7- to 8-ounce swordfish steaks, trimmed; Scant 2 cups Mango BBQ Sauce; 1 mango, peeled and sliced, for garnish

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).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the orange

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

Limefits better
Plumfits better
Avocadofits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, clove, garlic, pepper, white wine, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Mango	1 cup diced (165g)	99
Orange Juice	1 medium (131g)	62
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Seed	not in our table	0
Swordfish	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Mango BBQ'd-Grilled Swordfish