Why it works: Pork and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,025 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
Contains: egg, soy (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.
Put the pork medallions in a bowl with the soy sauce, Chinese five-spice and cornflour. Toss to coat and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Heat a splash of cooking oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Fry the medallions for 3 to 4 minutes per side until golden and cooked through to 145°F (63°C) in the thickest part.
Reduce the heat to medium, add the honey to the pan and turn the pork for about 1 minute until glazed. Transfer to a plate and rest for 3 minutes.
Wipe out the pan if needed and heat a splash of cooking oil over high heat. Add the cooked rice and stir-fry for 3 minutes, breaking up any clumps.
Add the defrosted peas and stir-fry for 2 minutes until hot. Push the rice to one side, pour in the beaten egg and scramble until set, then stir it through the rice.
Stir half of the sliced spring onions into the fried rice and remove from the heat.
Divide the fried rice among four plates, top with the glazed pork and scatter over the remaining spring onions to serve.
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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Pork + ricetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,025 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Rice + peastop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,405 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Pork + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together18,199 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Rice + oniontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,990 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pork + peastop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,585 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 onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sauce, honey, egg, rice, peas):
- Asparagusbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sauce, honey, egg, rice, peas. 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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