Name: Beef Brisket with Caramelized Onions and Merlot Sauce
Ingredients: 1 first or flat-cut brisket, 4 to 5 lb.; Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; 2 Tbs. olive oil; 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion; 1/2 cup diced carrot; 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 1 can (28 oz.) plum tomatoes, with juices; 2 cups Merlot or other full-bodied red wine; 1 bay leaf; 2 Tbs. olive oil; 3 cups thinly sliced sweet onions such as Vidalia; Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; 1/2 cup pitted dried cherries

Why it works: Onion and garlic 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, olive, onion, carrot, garlic, clove, tomato):

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Cherryfits about as well
Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, olive, onion, carrot, garlic, clove, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cherry	1 cup (138g)	87
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Beef Brisket with Caramelized Onions and Merlot Sauce