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Carbonara

Creamy pasta bake

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Carbonara

Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,259 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Carbonara

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • For the white sauce
  • Vegetables

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + cheddar cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 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

Flavor stand-ins for the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, mustard, pepper, cheddar cheese, chicken, onion):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Sesamebetter flavor fit
  3. Lentilsbetter flavor fit
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, mustard, pepper, cheddar cheese, chicken, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).