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Skinny BBQ Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese with Caramelized Onions

A quick and easy mac and cheese that is grown up, decadent and guilt-free!

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Why it works: Onion and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,838 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep30 min
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

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

By tastykitchen. 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. Onion + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cheese + cheddar cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together984 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Wheat + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,416 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, cheese, wheat, milk, pepper, cheddar cheese):

  1. Garlicthe original
  2. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Celeryabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, cheese, wheat, milk, pepper, cheddar cheese. 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).