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Five-spice Braised Beef

This slow-cooked Chinese-flavoured dish makes a lovely change from a stir-fry but is just as easy to prepare.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Five-spice Braised Beef

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Five-spice Braised Beef

Serves 4
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

379Calories
29 gProtein
15 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Honey1 tbsp (21g)64
Red Onion1 medium (110g)44
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Sunflower Oilnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Sunflower + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sunflower, onion, garlic, beef, sauce, honey, pepper):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sunflower, onion, garlic, beef, sauce, honey, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.