Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Plain Chop Suey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the pork into pieces 1/16 inch by 1½ inch by 1 inch.
Cook and serve
Heat an oiled pan and fry the pork, bean sprouts, and onions for 10 minutes.
Add enough water to cover the ingredients and cook for 15 minutes.
Stir in the Chinese gravy and serve immediately.
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.
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 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
- Provides the main meat, browning in the hot oil and adding savory flavor.
- Bean sprouts
- Add crisp texture and moisture that softens as they cook.
- Onion threads
- Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Simmering in water after frying. Adding water and simmering for 15 minutes softens the bean sprouts and can dilute the browning from frying. Keep the simmer steady and serve as soon as the gravy is stirred in, since sprouts lose their crunch quickly.
“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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