Name: Pork and String Bean Stir FryPork and String Bean Stir Fry
Yield: Serves 2
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons soy sauce; 2 tablespoons mirin (or white wine); 2 teaspoons sugar; Salt; 2 teaspoon sesame oil; 1 teaspoon cornstarch; 1/4 cup water; 3/4 pound pork loin cutlets, thinly sliced; 2 tablespoons flour; about 3 tablespoons oil; 3 garlic cloves, minced; 1-inch piece ginger, minced (about 1 tablespoon); 1 onion, halved and sliced thin; 1 red or yellow pepper, trimmed and cut thinly; 2 large handfuls green or wax beans, trimmed and cut into 3-inch pieces; Scallions, for garnish

Why it works: Sesame and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 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.

Sesame + garlictop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Sesame + porktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together456 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Garlic + clovetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
White wine + garlictop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,044 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Sesame + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,057 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, white wine, sugar, sesame, pork, flour, garlic):

Jalapenofits better
Gingerfits better
Capersfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, white wine, sugar, sesame, pork, flour, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pork	100g cooked	242
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Bean	not in our table	0

Pork and String Bean Stir FryPork and String Bean Stir Fry