Name: Pork Kabobs with Balsamic BBQ Sauce
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 1 cup FOR THE BBQ SAUCE:; ¾ cups Balsamic Vinegar; 3 Tablespoons Ketchup; 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar; 2 Tablespoons Honey; 2 cloves Worcestershire Sauce; 1 teaspoon Garlic; 2 teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes; 1 pound Stone Ground Mustard; 1 package FOR THE KABOBS:; 1 whole Pork Loin, Cubed; 1 pound (12 Oz. Size) Chicken Sausage; 1 pound Small Zucchini, Thickly Sliced; ½ cups Baby Bella Or Button Mushrooms; 3 cloves Mini Sweet Bell Peppers; 1 teaspoon Olive Oil; ½ teaspoons Garlic

Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,099 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

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.

Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Clove + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together13,144 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Vinegar + honeytop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,583 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Garlic + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,044 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Vinegar + garlictop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together9,034 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 (sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, honey, clove, pepper):

Gingerbetter flavor fit
Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
Allspicebetter flavor fit
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, honey, clove, pepper. 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).

Pork Kabobs with Balsamic BBQ Sauce