Why it works: Sesame and honey work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 527 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl pentanoate, which smells yeast, fruit. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Toast the sesame seeds and poppy seeds together in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes, shaking the pan, until lightly golden. Tip them onto a plate to cool.
Bring a pan of water to a boil. Add the broccoli florets and steam for 3 minutes.
Add the frozen peas to the pan and cook for another 2 minutes, until both vegetables are bright green and tender-crisp.
While the vegetables cook, whisk the soy sauce, clear honey and sesame oil together in a large bowl.
Drain the broccoli and peas well, add them to the bowl and toss to coat in the soy and honey mixture.
Scatter over the toasted sesame and poppy seeds and serve warm.
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.
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Sesame + honeytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together527 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).
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Sesame + broccolitop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together372 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Sesame + poppy seedtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together106 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Broccoli + peastop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together402 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Poppy seed + honeytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together91 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the poppy seed
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sesame, broccoli, peas, sauce, honey):
- Gingerbetter flavor fit
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Corianderbetter flavor fit
- Poppy seedthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sesame, broccoli, peas, sauce, honey. 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).
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