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Pairing

Onion + Red wine

A good pairing. Cooks put them together in 2,075 recipes, and they share 85 flavor molecules: the top 17% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikemoderate
Cooked together2,075 recipes
Ranktop 17% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Onion Red wine
280onion only 85shared 198red wine only Onion · 365 Red wine · 283
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do onion and red wine go together?

Yes. 2,075 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 85 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 17% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

They overlap on 85 flavor molecules: 30% of red wine's 283. Among the shared key aromas are gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet) and furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

What each one brings

onion

The sulfurous side. Sulfurous notes make up 13% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 2% for red wine. It carries 280 molecules red wine doesn't have.

red wine

The fruit. Fruity notes make up 34% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 9% for onion. It carries 198 molecules onion doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Garlic: the best fit for both, top 1% of pairs with onion, top 15% with red wine.
  • Thyme: top 7% of pairs with onion, top 9% with red wine.
  • Tomato: top 8% of pairs with onion, top 8% with red wine.
  • Potato: top 3% of pairs with onion, top 15% with red wine.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with onion and red wine

We have no browsable recipe that lists both onion and red wine.

Can you swap one for the other?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: onion has 280 molecules red wine doesn't, and red wine has 198 that onion doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 85 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 280 only in onion and the 198 only in red wine.

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Onion and red wine questions

Do onion and red wine go together?

A good pairing. Cooks put them together in 2,075 recipes, and they share 85 flavor molecules: the top 17% of all ingredient pairs.

Why do onion and red wine taste good together?

They overlap on 85 flavor molecules: 30% of red wine's 283. Among the shared key aromas are gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet) and furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

What goes with onion and red wine?

Garlic is the best third ingredient: top 1% of pairs with onion and top 15% with red wine. Thyme and tomato also fit both.

Can I use red wine instead of onion?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: onion has 280 molecules red wine doesn't, and red wine has 198 that onion doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

1
2

Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs

Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Onion vs Red Wine. https://compkitchen.com/compare/onion-vs-red-wine. Accessed 2026-11-03.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_onion_vs_red_wine_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Onion vs Red Wine},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/onion-vs-red-wine},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.