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Chop Suey

A stir-fry of pork, mushrooms, onions, and celery in a Worcestershire sauce glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,571 recipes. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Chop Suey

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. Cut the meat from the pork chops into small lumps.

  2. Fry the meat in hot olive oil until brown, then drain the meat.

Add the vegetables and sauce

  1. Add the mushrooms, onions, and celery to the meat.

  2. Dissolve the corn starch and sugar in warm water, then add Worcestershire sauce.

  3. Pour the mixture over the ingredients.

Cook

  1. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring constantly.

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. Olive + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

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

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Celery + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together920 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork chops
Supply the meat, which browns in the oil for savoury flavour.
Olive oil
Carries heat for browning the meat and adds fat for flavour.
Corn starch
Thickens the warm liquid into a glossy sauce as it cooks.
Onions
Soften and turn sweeter during the long simmer, adding aroma.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and an earthy flavour as they cook into the sauce.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds salty, tangy depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the cornstarch sauce while it cooks. Cornstarch thickens when its starch granules swell in hot liquid. Stirring constantly keeps the sauce smooth and stops the starch and meat from sticking and scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, olive, mushroom, onion, corn, sugar, sauce):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, olive, mushroom, onion, corn, sugar, sauce. 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.

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