Why it works: Sesame and cabbage work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 137 recipes mention both. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: wheat, soy, 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.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the soba noodles and cook about 5 minutes, until tender. Drain, rinse under cold running water until cool, and drain well.
In a small bowl, whisk the tamari or soy sauce, half of the rice vinegar, the toasted sesame oil, minced garlic, raw honey and sriracha to make the dressing.
In a large bowl, toss the shredded napa cabbage with the remaining rice vinegar and let it sit for 5 minutes to soften slightly.
Add the thinly sliced red bell pepper and scallions to the cabbage and toss to combine.
Add the cooled noodles to the dressing and toss until evenly coated.
Add the dressed noodles to the cabbage mixture and toss gently. Chill for 15 minutes if you have time, then serve cold.
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.
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Sesame + cabbagetop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Rice + sesametop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together643 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Sesame + garlictop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,999 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Vinegar + honeytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,583 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Garlic + srirachatop 5% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together270 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the sriracha
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, rice, vinegar, sesame, garlic, honey, cabbage):
- Gingerbetter flavor fit
- Corianderbetter flavor fit
- Pepperbetter flavor fit
- Srirachathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, rice, vinegar, sesame, garlic, honey, cabbage. 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).
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