Name: Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Soup
Ingredients: 3 Tbs. olive oil; 1 lb. yellow onions, thinly sliced; 1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced; 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. Marsala wine; 1 3/4 lb. cremini mushrooms, brushed clean and thinly sliced; 1 bay leaf; 7 cups low-sodium chicken stock; Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; 2 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice; 1 country-style loaf, crusts removed, bread cut into 1/2-inch cubes; 6 oz. Gruyère cheese, shredded

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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 (olive, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, wine, mushroom):

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Rosemaryfits better
Clovethe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Soup