Name: Five-spice Belly Pork with Mango, Pickled Ginger and Glass Noodle Salad
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1kg/2lb 4oz pork belly; 1½ tsp salt; 1 tsp Chinese five-spice; 2 tbsp roughly chopped ginger; 5 garlic cloves; 3 spring onions; splash soy sauce; 4 tbsp chicken stock; 4 tbsp soy sauce; 4 tsp palm sugar; 4 tsp plum; 4 tsp balsamic vinegar; 1 large head Little Gem lettuce; ½ mango; 4 tbsp pickled ginger; 2 tbsp salted peanuts; 1-2 red chillies; 2 spring onions; 1 tsp roasted sesame seeds; 2 tbsp finely chopped red onion; 4 tbsp chopped coriander; large handful cooked glass noodles

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pork + chickentop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + chickentop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,850 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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 (pork, ginger, garlic, onion, sauce, chicken, sugar):

Cuminfits better
Turmericfits better
Corianderfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, ginger, garlic, onion, sauce, chicken, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Peanut	1 oz (28g)	161
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Mango	1 cup diced (165g)	99
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Red Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Seed	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0

Five-spice Belly Pork with Mango, Pickled Ginger and Glass Noodle Salad