Why it works: Onion and brie work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 55 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl butyrate, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 3Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon pieces and cook, stirring, until crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan.
Add the sliced onion to the skillet and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until soft and golden, about 8 minutes.
Pour in the beer and stir in the maple syrup. Simmer over medium heat until the liquid is reduced and syrupy, about 6 minutes.
Add the sliced Brussels sprouts and cook, stirring, until tender-crisp, about 4 minutes. Return the bacon to the pan, stir, and remove from the heat.
Thinly slice the brie. Set a clean skillet over medium heat. Lay one tortilla in the pan and cover half of it with about a quarter of the brie, then spoon in about a third of the onion and sprout mixture.
Fold the tortilla in half over the filling and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, pressing gently, until golden and the cheese has melted. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, brie and filling.
Cut each quesadilla into wedges and serve warm.
Explore the science
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.
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Onion + brietop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together55 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
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Pumpkin + maple syruptop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together256 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Olive + wheattop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together937 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Olive + pumpkintop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Olive + oniontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together26,431 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the pumpkin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, beer, brussels sprouts, maple syrup, wheat, brie):
- Grapeabout as good a flavor fit
- Appleabout as good a flavor fit
- Pumpkinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, beer, brussels sprouts, maple syrup, wheat, brie. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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