Why it works: Sugar and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 36% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,747 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Venison-ham
Ingredients
Directions
Mix sugar, coarse sea salt, and a little saltpetre.
Rub the haunch with the mixture daily for three weeks.
Hang the haunch to smoke.
For serving, stew with a chopped onion and catsup.
Season the gravy with bacon and serve.
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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Sugar + oniontop 36% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,747 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,747 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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