Name: Liptauer with Rye Toast and Pickled Red Onions
Yield: Makes 2 cups
Ingredients: 1/2 small garlic clove, pressed; 1/2 teaspoon (or more) coarse kosher salt; 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature; 1 cup (8 ounces) whole-milk quark* or Greek-style yogurt; 2 tablespoons finely chopped cornichons** or sour pickles; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives; 1 tablespoon grated onion; 1 tablespoon Hungarian sweet paprika; 1 1/2 teaspoons (or more) white wine vinegar or juice from pickles; 1/4 teaspoon Hungarian hot paprika; Lightly toasted sliced rye bread

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + chivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,149 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chive + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Clove + chivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together450 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, butter, milk, chive, onion, white wine, rye):

Thymefits better
Capersfits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, butter, milk, chive, onion, white wine, rye. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Rye Bread	1 slice (32g)	83
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Liptauer with Rye Toast and Pickled Red Onions