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An Ode to Spam in the Style of Seuss

Before we tie a big, fat bow on this year’s box of ups, down and go-arounds, I‘d like to give props to Spam, the wondrous food that started my relationship with Creative Loafing (the newspaper that...

By steamykitchen · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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An Ode to Spam in the Style of Seuss

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 ↓

An Ode to Spam in the Style of Seuss

Serves 4

Ingredients

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

381Calories
14 gProtein
6 gFat
61 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Spinach1 cup raw (30g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2

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

By steamykitchen. 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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Rice + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together518 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, onion, garlic, spinach, rice wine, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

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