Name: Sukiyaki
Ingredients: Beef , sliced thin; 1 napa cabbage; Green onions; Firm tofu; Shiitake mushrooms; Spinach; Shirataki noodles

Why it works: Shiitake and spinach share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 58 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Sukiyaki

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the vegetables, and cut them into large pieces.
Soak the mushrooms in warm water for 15 minutes.
Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Heat an electric skillet on low heat, and grease with a little bit of oil.
Put a few slices of beef into the skillet, and cook them until brown.
Add sauce (don't add all of them at the same time).
Sort the beef slices to the sides. Add the rest of the ingredients in an organized fashion.
Serve the sukiyaki with bowls of rice, with a raw egg yolk as the dip. Add more ingredients as necessary.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

448Calories

42 gProtein

21 gFat

27 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Tofu	100g firm	76
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Shiitake	1/2 cup (73g)	34
Napa Cabbage	1 cup shredded (89g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

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.

Shiitake + spinachtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together58 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Tofu + shiitaketop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together58 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Onion + shiitaketop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together412 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together552 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, tofu, shiitake, mushroom, spinach):

Chivefits better
Shallotfits better
Welsh onionfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, tofu, shiitake, mushroom, spinach. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.