Name: Red Wine Beef Stew
Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients: 4 pounds chuck roast, cut into 2-inch pieces; 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1/4 cup tomato paste; 2 cups dry red wine, such as Pinot Noir or Syrah; 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth; 1 medium yellow onion, quartered; 2 bay leaves; 4 sprigs thyme; 10 medium carrots (about 2 pounds), peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces; 1 1/2 pounds baby white or red potatoes, halved

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,948 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,171 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, olive, tomato, red wine, chicken, thyme):

Capsicumfits better
Eggplantfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, olive, tomato, red wine, chicken, thyme. 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
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Red Wine Beef Stew