Why it works: Gochujang and pepper work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and 25 recipes mention both. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →
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.
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Gochujang + peppertop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together25 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Soybean + sesametop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together44 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Sesame + gochujangtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together37 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Pork + soybeantop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together22 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Garlic + gochujangtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the gochujang
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, soybean, sesame, sugar, garlic, pepper):
- Gingerbetter flavor fit
- Corianderabout as good a flavor fit
- Gochujangthe original
- Cuminabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, soybean, sesame, sugar, garlic, pepper. 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).
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