Name: Jjinmandu
Ingredients: 4 packs wanton skin (rounds), 1 lb ground beef; 1 cup kimchi*, 1 bunch bu chu (Korean chives)**; 1/2 onion, finely chopped, 3 green onions, finely chopped; 3 tbsp minced garlic, 2 tbsp soy sauce; 2 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp salt; 2 tsp ground pepper, 1 tsp juice of ginger; 1 egg, beaten (to seal wanton skin); cho kan jang (soy sauce with rice vinegar); 4 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp rice vinegar; 1 tsp gochugaru (Korean chili powder)- optional; (*You can substitute kim chi with blanched nappa cabbage.); (**Korean chives - They are strong in flavor, a bit tough in texture.)

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 ↓

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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Chive + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,149 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chive + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Chive + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together89 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground beef: Provides the main savory body and fat that keeps the filling juicy inside the wrapper.
Kimchi: Adds sourness, heat and fermented depth that carries through the filling.
Wanton skin: Wraps the filling and cooks into a tender, chewy casing.
Egg: Acts as a glue that seals the wrapper edges so the filling stays inside while boiling.
Sesame oil: Adds a nutty aroma and a rich fat that coats the filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the wrappers. If the edges are not sealed well with beaten egg, the filling can leak out and the dumplings can burst or go watery in the boiling water.

Swap the sesame

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

Sesamethe original
Beansfits about as well
Black-eyed peafits about as well
Chickpeafits about as well

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

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Chive	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Kimchi	not in our table	0
Seal	not in our table	0

Jjinmandu

Jjinmandu

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

Shape the dumplings

Boil and serve

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)