Name: Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Semolina Gnocchi
Yield: Makes 12 first-course servings
Ingredients: 2 1/2 pounds 1-inch cubes trimmed pork shoulder (such as boneless pork butt); 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter; 1/2 cup all purpose flour; 1 medium white onion, chopped; 1 large carrot, chopped; 1 large celery stalk, chopped; 1/4 pound pancetta (Italian bacon),* chopped; 2 cups dry white wine; 4 cups whole milk; 2 28-ounce cans plum tomatoes in juice, pureed with juice in blender in batches until smooth

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).
Cinnamon + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together981 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cinnamon + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,009 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, butter, flour, onion, carrot, celery, white wine):

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Marjoramfits better
Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, flour, onion, carrot, celery, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pork	100g cooked	242
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Semolina Gnocchi