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Tofu with Pork and Miso

"This is a wonderful dish that goes really well with hot steamed rice. It's also very quick and easy."

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Why it works: Miso and pork work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 23 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

3 servings
Prep10 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: soy, 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 tofu into cubes if needed and pat the cubes gently dry with paper towels.

  2. Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the white parts of the green onion and cook for 1 minute, stirring.

  3. Add the ground pork and cook, breaking it up, for about 4 minutes until no pink remains and it reaches 160°F (71°C) inside.

  4. In a small bowl, stir the miso paste and water together until smooth, then pour into the skillet.

  5. Gently add the tofu cubes, lower the heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 4 minutes, stirring carefully so the tofu stays intact.

  6. Sprinkle the green parts of the green onion over the top and serve hot.

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. Miso + porktop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sesame + tofutop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Miso + tofutop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Miso + sesametop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

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 (miso, sesame, pork, tofu):

  1. Welsh onionbetter flavor fit
  2. Spinachabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against miso, sesame, pork, tofu. 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).