Name: Potlikker Noodles with Mustard Greens
Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 1 10–12-ounce smoked ham hock or smoked turkey wing; 1/2 onion, coarsely chopped; 8 garlic cloves, lightly crushed; 2 bay leaves; 1/4 cup red wine vinegar; 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce (preferably Texas Pete or Frank's); 2 tablespoons sugar; 5 cups low-salt chicken broth or water; 2 bunches mustard greens or kale, tough stems trimmed, chopped, and reserved, leaves chopped; 3/4 pound egg noodles; Kosher salt; 6 slices bacon (about 7 ounces), cut crosswise into 1/4"-wide pieces; 2 large shallots, thinly sliced; Freshly ground black pepper; 1/4 cup finely grated Pecorino

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).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + red winetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together849 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Garlic + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, garlic, clove, red wine, vinegar, pepper, sugar):

Mustardfits better
Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, garlic, clove, red wine, vinegar, pepper, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sauce	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

Potlikker Noodles with Mustard Greens