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Egg Rolls

You can put almost anything in an egg roll! But there are two secrets to making it extra good: one is in the sauce, and the other is the oil. I learned this from a Malaysian friend of mine who taught me how to make these egg rolls!

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Bamboo shoots and spinach share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 11 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 20
Prep45 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, peanut, tree nuts, soy, shellfish, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the cooking oil in a large wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the minced garlic and grated ginger and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant.

  2. Add the shrimp, shredded chicken, or pork and stir-fry until cooked through. Chicken or pork must reach 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part; shrimp should be opaque and firm.

  3. Add the chopped onion, shredded carrots, shredded cabbage, and any optional celery, water chestnuts, bok choy, and bamboo shoots. Stir-fry 3 to 4 minutes until softened.

  4. Add the shiitake mushrooms, optional kohlrabi, and optional bean sprouts. Stir-fry 2 minutes, then add the optional spinach and cook until just wilted.

  5. Stir in the sugar, soy sauce, dry sherry, salt, Chinese 5 spice, and sesame oil. Cook 1 minute, then spread the filling on a tray and cool completely, about 20 minutes.

  6. Drain any liquid from the filling. Beat the whole egg in a small bowl to use as a sealant.

  7. Place a wrapper with one corner toward you. Spoon a portion of filling across the lower third, fold the bottom over, tuck in the sides, roll tightly, and seal the top edge with the beaten egg.

  8. Heat the peanut oil in a deep pot to 350°F (177°C). Fry the egg rolls in batches 3 to 4 minutes, turning until golden brown and crisp.

  9. Drain the egg rolls on a wire rack or paper towels. Serve hot.

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. Bamboo shoots + spinachtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Water chestnut + bamboo shootstop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Garlic + spinachtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, shrimp, cabbage, carrot, onion, water chestnut, bamboo shoots):

  1. Gingerabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, shrimp, cabbage, carrot, onion, water chestnut, bamboo shoots. 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).