Name: Tourtière Du Shack
Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients: 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour; 2 cups (4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth; 1 1/2 medium onions, chopped, divided; 4 garlic cloves, chopped, divided; 5 whole black peppercorns plus freshly ground black pepper; 5 sprigs thyme; 2 bay leaves; 1 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), cut into 2" pieces; Kosher salt; 1 tablespoon unsalted butter; 8 medium button mushrooms, stemmed and finely chopped; 1/2 cup dry white wine; 1 1/4 pounds ground pork; 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves; 3/4 cup grated, peeled russet potato; All-purpose flour (for surface); 1 large egg yolk, beaten to blend; A 9”-diameter deep dish glass or ceramic pie dish

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 + thymetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,608 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, chicken, onion, garlic, pepper, thyme):

Parsleyfits better
Marjoramfits better
Rosemaryfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, chicken, onion, garlic, pepper, thyme. 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
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Cloves	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pie	not in our table	0

Tourtière Du Shack