Dilly Bread

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.

1. Cottage cheese + buttertop 10% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together376 recipes

   Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

2. Onion + dilltop 12% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together1,639 recipes

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

3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together124,287 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

4. Cottage cheese + dilltop 14% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together38 recipes

   Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together92,116 recipes

   Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour

Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.

Yeast

Produces gas as it feeds on sugar, making the dough rise.

Cottage cheese

Adds moisture and tenderness to the crumb.

Egg

Adds richness and helps bind the dough.

Sugar

Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.

Baking soda

Reacts with acidic dairy to add a little lift.

The step that matters

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cottage cheese, sugar, egg, butter, dill, flour):

1. Chivefits better
2. Cucumberfits better
3. Spinachfits better
4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cottage cheese, sugar, egg, butter, dill, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.