Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Boiled Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Peel the onions carefully.
Place them in cold water.
Boil the onions for a few minutes, then drain the water.
Prepare a white sauce as described in the asparagus recipe.
Trim the hard ends of the asparagus and cut into small bunches.
Tie the asparagus loosely with twine and place in salted boiling water.
Cook the asparagus for 20 to 25 minutes, then drain.
Serve the asparagus on buttered toast with a few tablespoons of white sauce.
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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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sauce):
- Shallotfits better
- Mustardfits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Tomatofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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