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My Favorite Sloppy Joes

"This is my go-to sloppy joe recipe. Liquid smoke is the key ingredient here."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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My Favorite Sloppy Joes

Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,099 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

My Favorite Sloppy Joes

6 servings
Prep10 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ketchup, onion, sugar, mustard, sauce, pepper):

  1. Capersbetter flavor fit
  2. Celeryabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Tarragonabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ketchup, onion, sugar, mustard, sauce, 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).