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Sesame Sake Pork Medallions

"Toasty sesame seeds and sake cooking wine is a perfect pair for versatile pork tenderloin."

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Why it works: Sake and pork share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 29 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, sesame (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. Cut the pork tenderloin crosswise into 1-inch medallions and gently press each one flat to about 3/4 inch thick.

  2. In a small saucepan, whisk the sake cooking wine, brown sugar, cornstarch and toasted sesame oil until smooth, then set aside.

  3. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, shaking the pan, until golden. Transfer them to a plate.

  4. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the medallions and sear for about 3 minutes per side until browned.

  5. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes, until the thickest part of the pork reaches 145°F (63°C). Move the medallions to a plate and rest them for 3 minutes.

  6. Stir the sake mixture and pour it into the skillet with the pan juices. Simmer over medium heat, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes until thickened and glossy.

  7. Spoon the sauce over the pork medallions, then sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and minced green onion. Add more sesame seeds if desired.

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. Sake + porktop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Sake + winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Sesame + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Sake + sesametop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together79 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Sesame + porktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sake, wine, sugar, sesame, pork, butter):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sake, wine, sugar, sesame, pork, butter. 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).