Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Chop Suey
1 bowl of riceIngredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean the chicken and scrape the meat from the bones; cut into strips about 1½ inches long and ½ inch wide.
If using pork, cut into strips the same size.
Slice the onion thinly.
Soak the mushrooms in water for 10 minutes, then remove the stems.
Cut the celery into pieces 1½ inches long.
Wash and slice the Chinese potatoes without cooking them.
Cook and serve
In a frying pan, add the chicken (or chicken and pork, or pork) with fat and fry until cooked but not browned.
Add the sliced onions and cook briefly.
Add the mushrooms and pour enough Chinese sauce over the ingredients to brown them.
Add some water and stew for a few minutes.
Add the celery, and after a minute, add the potatoes.
Finally, add a little floured water to create gravy from the stewed mixture.
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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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,047 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the main protein; frying until cooked but not browned keeps it tender.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy flavour and a soft, meaty texture to the stew.
- Chinese sauce
- Seasons the dish with salt and helps brown the ingredients in the pan.
- Chinese potatoes
- Add starch that becomes tender in the stew and helps thicken the gravy.
The step that matters
Adding the floured water for gravy. Flour mixed with water must be added to simmering liquid and stirred so it disperses without lumps. Starch granules swell and thicken the gravy only when heated, so the liquid needs to be hot enough to set the sauce.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, mushroom, potato, rice, sauce):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits about as well
- Celerythe original
- Turmericfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, mushroom, potato, rice, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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