Name: Lamb Bulgogi with Asian Pear Dipping Sauce
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Ingredients: 4 green onions, coarsely chopped; 3 tablespoons sugar; 3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped; 1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, cut into thin rounds; 2/3 cup soy sauce; 2/3 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine); 1/3 cup Asian sesame oil; 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 boned butterflied leg of lamb (about 5 1/2 pounds; from one 6 1/2- to 7-pound bone-in leg), trimmed of excess fat; 1 cup chopped peeled cored Asian pear (about 1/2 large); 10 green onions; 2 chopped, 8 trimmed; 1/2 cup soy sauce; 1/2 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine); 3 tablespoons sugar; 3 tablespoons Asian sesame oil; 4 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, divided; Nonstick vegetable oil spray; 8 jalapeño chiles, halved (seeded, if desired); 8 garlic cloves, peeled; 1/2 cup kochujang (Korean hot pepper paste); 1 large head of butter lettuce, leaves separated and left whole; Special equipment: 3 metal skewers or bamboo skewers soaked in water at least 1 hour; Ingredient info: Mirin is sold in the Asian foods section of some supermarkets and at Japanese markets. is a spicy red paste made with pureed fermented soybeans (miso) and hot chiles. It's available at Korean markets and online from koamart.com. If you can't find , substitute 1/3 cup miso mixed with; Test-Kitchen tip: Ask your butcher to bone, butterfly, and trim the leg of lamb for you. Save the bone, pop it in the freezer, and use it to make soup or stock.

Why it works: Clove and ginger 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.

Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Onion + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ginger + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,531 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Garlic + sesametop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 (onion, sugar, garlic, ginger, sauce, rice wine, sesame):

Corianderfits better
Cuminfits better
Turmericfits better
Clovethe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Lamb	100g cooked	294
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Asian Pear	1 medium (178g)	101
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Miso	1 tbsp (18g)	34
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Toasted Sesame Seed	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Soybean	not in our table	0
Soup	not in our table	0

Lamb Bulgogi with Asian Pear Dipping Sauce