Name: Sweet and Spicy BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 8 h
Yield: 24
Ingredients: 1 Tablespoon FOR THE DRY RUB:; 2 Tablespoons Salt; 2 Tablespoons Black Pepper; 1 teaspoon Dark Brown Sugar; 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder; 2 Tablespoons Adobo Powder; 1 teaspoon Paprika; 3 pounds Cayenne; 2 Tablespoons Pork Shoulder Roast; ½ Tablespoons FOR THE SAUCE:; 2 cloves Worcestershire Sauce; 2 whole Liquid Smoke; 1 whole Garlic, Smashed And Peeled; ½ cups Chipotle Chilies In Adobo From The Can, Minced; 1 bottle Large Vidalia Onion, Peeled And Roughly Chopped; 24 Cola; 1 pound (18 Oz. Size) Your Favorite BBQ Sauce (I Used Sweet Baby Ray's)

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,058 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together18,214 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, garlic, pork, sauce, onion):

Gingerbetter flavor fit
Thymebetter flavor fit
Cuminbetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, garlic, pork, sauce, onion. 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).

Sweet and Spicy BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders