Name: Szegedin Goulash
Yield: 4–6
Ingredients: 100 g lard; 600 g pork shoulder, cut into bite-sized cubes; 1 large onion , finely chopped; 1–2 tbsp tomato purée; 1½ tsp paprika; Water or beef stock; 2 bay leaves; 1–2 garlic cloves, minced; Salt; Freshly-ground pepper; 700 g sauerkraut; 125 ml sour cream

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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 + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 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: Provides the meat that becomes tender during the long, slow simmer.
Onion: Softens and browns to build sweetness and a savoury base for the stew.
Paprika: Gives the goulash its characteristic red colour and warm, sweet-peppery aroma.
Sauerkraut: Adds sourness that balances the richness of the pork and paprika.
Sour cream: Adds creaminess and a tangy finish that softens the stew's acidity.
Tomato purée: Adds concentrated tomato flavour, body and a deeper red colour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the onions until golden brown. Onions cooked slowly until golden develop sweetness and depth; rushing or burning them gives bitterness that carries through the whole stew.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, tomato, beef, garlic, pepper, cream):

Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Celeryfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, tomato, beef, garlic, pepper, cream. 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
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Sauerkraut	not in our table	0

Szegedin Goulash