Name: Agave-Glazed Pork Belly with Grilled Pineapple
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 4-pound pork belly (with or without rib bones); 4 teaspoons kosher salt plus more; 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper plus more; 6 poblano chiles, stemmed, coarsely chopped; 3 habanero chiles, stemmed, sliced into 1/4" rounds; 3 serrano chiles, stemmed, chopped; 1 cup agave syrup (nectar), divided; Vegetable oil; 1 ripe pineapple (about 3 1/2 pounds), peeled, cored, cut into 1/2" rounds; 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar; All chiles are available at better supermarkets, farmers’ markets, and Latin markets. Agave syrup (nectar) is available at better supermarkets and natural foods stores.

Why it works: Pineapple and apple cider vinegar share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 26 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

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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.

Pineapple + apple cider vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together26 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pork + apple cider vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together175 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Pepper + pineappletop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together532 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Agave + syruptop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together110 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + apple cider vinegartop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together477 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

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

Agave-Glazed Pork Belly with Grilled Pineapple

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Explore the science

The flavor team