Skip to main content

Sweet and Sour Meatballs I

"Meatballs in sweet and sour sauce."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Sweet and Sour Meatballs I

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sweet and Sour Meatballs I

6 to 8 servings
Prep10 min
Cook5 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

454Calories
35 gProtein
21 gFat
32 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Lemon + grapetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,412 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + grapetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Beef + grapetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, onion, sauce, lemon):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, onion, sauce, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.