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Roast Pork and Provolone Sandwiches

"Why go out when these restaurant-style sandwiches are so easy to make at home...and they're ready in just 15 minutes."

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Why it works: Pork and provolone cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 100 recipes mention both. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep10 min
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Stir together the picante sauce and honey mustard in a small saucepan.

  2. Warm the sauce over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until hot but not boiling.

  3. Toast the split hamburger buns cut side up under a broiler or in a skillet for 1 to 2 minutes until lightly golden.

  4. Layer the deli roast pork in a single pass in a skillet over medium heat and warm for 1 to 2 minutes until heated through.

  5. Place a slice of provolone over the warm pork and cover the pan for 30 seconds to melt the cheese.

  6. Spread a spoonful of the warm sauce on the bottom halves of the toasted buns.

  7. Top each bun with the pork and cheese, then add a pile of thinly cut spinach strips.

  8. Close the sandwiches with the top bun halves and serve right away with the remaining sauce on the side.

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. Pork + provolone cheesetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  2. Honey + wheattop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Mustard + spinachtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together503 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Wheat + spinachtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Mustard + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,440 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 spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, honey, mustard, pork, wheat, provolone cheese):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, honey, mustard, pork, wheat, provolone cheese. 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).