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Chop Suey

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pork and chicken match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Chop Suey

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat 4 ounces of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the pork, celery, and ginger root; cook until lightly colored.

  3. Stir in vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, boiling water, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, and cloves.

  4. When the pork and giblets are almost tender, add the vegetables.

  5. Cook for a little longer, then drain off excess juice.

  6. Add 1 teaspoon of Chinese brown sauce and serve with boiled rice.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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.

  1. Pork + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + gingertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together988 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  5. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 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

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, liver, chicken, celery, pepper, olive, vinegar):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, liver, chicken, celery, pepper, olive, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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