Name: Meaty Spaghetti Sauce
Yield: 16 cups
Ingredients: 1 pound lean ground beef; 1 pound pork sausage; 2 ounces sliced pepperoni sausage; 1 green bell pepper, chopped; 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped; 1 tablespoon minced garlic; 2 onions, chopped; 2 carrots, diced; 2 stalks celery, chopped; 1 (8 ounce) can sliced mushrooms; 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce; 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes; 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste; 3 cubes beef bouillon cube; 3 bay leaves; 1 tablespoon dried thyme; 1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano; 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil; 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes; 1 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1 tablespoon white sugar; 1 cup beef broth

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, pepper, garlic, onion, carrot, mushroom):

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits about as well
Parsleyfits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, pepper, garlic, onion, carrot, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pork	100g cooked	242
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushrooms	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Oregano	1 tsp dried (1.8g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1

Meaty Spaghetti Sauce