Name: Chinese-style Ribs
Ingredients: 3½ lbs of pork country style ribs; 6 green onions; ¼ cup soy sauce; ¼ cup molasses; ½ cup water; 2 Tbs hoisin sauce; 4 Tbs brown sugar; 2 Tbs white wine vinegar; 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil; 2 teaspoons lemon juice; ½ teaspoon hot red pepper sauce; ½ teaspoon ground ginger; ½ teaspoon garlic powder; ½ teaspoon chili powder; ¼ teaspoon ground red pepper; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 2 cups cooked rice

Why it works: Onion and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,192 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. 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 + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Pork + sesametop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together456 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork country style ribs: Provide the meat that becomes tender during pressure cooking.
Soy sauce: Adds salty savoury depth to the sauce.
Molasses: Adds sweetness and dark colour to the glaze.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the sauce caramelise and darken.
Hoisin sauce: Adds sweet, savoury depth and a glossy thickness to the sauce.
White wine vinegar: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook on high pressure for 60 minutes. Pressure cooking tenderises tough connective tissue in pork, but timing depends on the cut and cooker. Undercooking leaves meat tough, and overcooking can make it stringy and dry, so check that the pork is fully cooked.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sauce, molasses, sugar, white wine, vinegar, sesame):

Capsicumfits better
Mustardfits better
Shallotfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sauce, molasses, sugar, white wine, vinegar, 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
Pork	100g cooked	242
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black 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
Water	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Chinese-style Ribs