Name: Midg's Mouth Watering Beef Jerky
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 h
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 5 pounds boneless beef sirloin; 2 cups soy sauce; 1 cup water; 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce; 3 tablespoons white sugar (optional); 3 tablespoons salt; 1/2 teaspoon onion powder; 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder; 2 teaspoons liquid smoke flavoring; mesquite or hickory wood chips, as needed for smoker

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).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Beef + garlictop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Sauce + oniontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,474 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Smoke	not in our table	0
Wood	not in our table	0

Midg's Mouth Watering Beef Jerky