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Sweet-and-Sour Onions

Romans have had a taste for sweet and sour since ancient times, when honey, grape must or sweet wine provided the sweet, and vinegar or garum the sour. In traditional Roman cooking, wild boar or beef tongue may be cooked in agrodolce, as are occasionally red mullet and salt cod. These onions, cooked until golden brown and tender, are ubiquitous in Rome during the colder months. This recipe yields piquant onions that nicely complement the simply prepared meats that are so much a part of the Roman menu.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Sweet-and-Sour Onions

Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,779 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sweet-and-Sour Onions

Serves 4.

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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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.

  1. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Olive + white winetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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