Name: Crockpot BBQ Pork Sandwiches
Ingredients: 8 lb pork shoulder roast; ¼ cup apple juice; ¼ cup vinegar; ½ cup brown sugar; 4 tbsp Dijon mustard; 2 tbsp brown sugar; 6 tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 1 tbsp onion powder; 2 cups ketchup; 1 cup chili sauce; ¼ cup lemon juice; ½ tbsp cayenne pepper; 3 tbsp salt; 8 tsp paprika; 2 tbsp garlic powder; 3 tsp onion powder; 2 tbsp black pepper; 2½ tsp thyme; 2½ tsp oregano

Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. 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.

Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + ketchuptop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together260 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork shoulder roast: Provides the meat, which becomes moist and tender as its connective tissue breaks down during long, slow cooking.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the sauce caramelise and darken as it cooks.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness.
Ketchup: Adds tomato body, sweetness and thickness to the sauce.
Worcestershire sauce: Adds savoury depth and umami to the sauce.
Dijon mustard: Adds sharp tang and helps bind the sauce together.

The step that matters

Cook low and slow until the meat pulls apart. Long, gentle cooking converts the pork's tough collagen into gelatin, which makes the meat tender and shreddable. Cutting the cooking short leaves it tough and difficult to pull apart.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, vinegar, sugar, mustard, sauce, onion, ketchup):

Avocadofits better
Limefits about as well
Lemonfits about as well
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, vinegar, sugar, mustard, sauce, onion, ketchup. 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
Apple Juice	1 medium (182g)	95
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
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
Oregano	1 tsp dried (1.8g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Crockpot BBQ Pork Sandwiches