Name: Azumaya Potstickers
Ingredients: 3/4 lb ground lean pork (can use beef,chicken or tofu instead); 1 cup cabbage (finely chopped); 8 water chestnuts (finely chopped); 2 green onions (finely chopped); 1 teaspoon ginger (grated); 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1 (12 ounce) package wonton wrappers (round); 2 tablespoons sesame oil; 3 cups chicken broth

Why it works: Water chestnut and sesame share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 74 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. 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.

Water chestnut + sesametop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together74 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Water chestnut + wonton wrappertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together18 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wonton wrapper + sesametop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together54 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Onion + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ginger + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,531 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground pork: Provides the savory meat base that makes up the bulk of the filling.
Wonton wrappers: Form the outer dough that encloses the filling and crisps on the bottom.
Chicken broth: Steams the potstickers through while the skillet is covered, cooking the filling.
Cabbage: Adds moisture and a crisp, mild bulk to the filling.
Water chestnuts: Add a crisp, juicy texture that stays firm during cooking.

The step that matters

Brown bottoms of potstickers. The bottoms must be browned in hot oil before adding broth so they form a crisp, golden crust. Skipping or underheating this step leaves the bottoms pale and soft instead of crisp.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, water chestnut, onion, ginger, sauce, wonton wrapper, sesame):

Welsh onionfits better
Spinachfits better
Broccolifits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, water chestnut, onion, ginger, sauce, wonton wrapper, sesame. 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
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Tofu	100g firm	76
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water Chestnut	not in our table	0
Wonton Wrapper	not in our table	0

Azumaya Potstickers