Name: Teriyaki Pork Roast
Ingredients: ¾ cup unsweetened apple juice; 2 tbsp sugar; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 tsp ground ginger; ¼ tsp garlic powder; ⅛ tsp pepper; 1 boneless pork loin roast, (about 3 pounds, halved); 6 tbsp cornstarch; 3 tbsp cold water

Why it works: Ginger and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,402 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.

Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Apple + red winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together148 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,424 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 loin roast: Provides the meat that is slowly cooked until tender in the sweet, savory liquid.
Cornstarch: Thickens the cooked juices into a glossy gravy when heated with liquid.
Apple juice: Supplies sweetness and liquid that flavours the roast and forms the base of the gravy.
Soy sauce: Adds salty, savory depth and helps build the teriyaki flavour in the cooking juices.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornstarch slurry into the juices and boiling. Cornstarch must be fully whisked into smooth cold water before it meets hot liquid, or it clumps. It thickens only when the mixture reaches a boil, so the gravy needs to be heated and stirred until it reaches the desired thickness.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, sauce, red wine, vinegar, ginger, garlic, pepper):

Limefits better
Plumfits better
Lemonfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sauce, red wine, vinegar, ginger, garlic, 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
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pork	100g cooked	242
Apple Juice	1 medium (182g)	95
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
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

Teriyaki Pork Roast