Name: Mushrooms in Salsa
Ingredients: 1 kilogram of mushrooms; ½ bottle of white wine; 1 jar of small white onions in vinegar (250 grams); 1 bay leaf; 1 can of tomato paste (250 grams); 2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley; oil to cover the bottom of a pan; butter (1 or 2 tablespoons); 3 to 4 minced garlic cloves; salt and pepper

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).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,700 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Mushrooms: Form the main body of the dish and absorb the sauce flavours as they cook.
White wine: Adds acidity and aromatic depth that lifts the sauce.
Tomato paste: Concentrates tomato flavour and adds colour and body to the sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and savoury browning to the frying of the mushrooms.
Garlic: Contributes pungent aroma that mellows as it cooks in fat.

The step that matters

Fry the mushrooms. Mushrooms release a lot of water; if the pan is crowded or too cool, they steam instead of browning, losing flavour and texture. Cooking in a hot pan in batches lets the moisture evaporate so the mushrooms brown.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, white wine, onion, vinegar, tomato, butter, garlic):

Thymefits better
Tarragonfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Basilfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, white wine, onion, vinegar, tomato, butter, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Mushrooms in Salsa