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Sweet and Smoky Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork Loin

"This makes a massive batch of pulled pork that is great for cook-outs, potlucks, parties for a sizable group, or for lunches and dinners with plenty of extras to freeze and reheat. Substitute any other diet soda; the soda is used as a substitute for brown sugar. Dish can be served by itself or 'sloppy joe' style on hamburger buns."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Sweet and Smoky Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork Loin

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 11,917 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet and Smoky Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork Loin

24 servings
Prep20 min
Cook4 hr

Ingredients

Directions

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

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 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 cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, sauce, tomato, pepper, garlic, nutmeg):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Cuminbetter flavor fit
  3. Oreganobetter flavor fit
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, sauce, tomato, pepper, garlic, nutmeg. 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).