Name: Onion Stuffing
Ingredients: 1 large cup bread crumbs; 2 Spanish onions, boiled until tender and chopped fine; 1 beaten egg; Salt and pepper to taste; 4 or 5 minced sage leaves; 1 teaspoon butter

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Onion Stuffing

Ingredients

1 large cup bread crumbs
2 Spanish onions, boiled until tender and chopped fine
1 beaten egg
Salt and pepper to taste
4 or 5 minced sage leaves
1 teaspoon butter

Directions

Prepare

Boil the Spanish onions until tender and chop them finely.

Mix the stuffing

In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs, chopped onions, beaten egg, sage leaves, salt, and pepper.
Melt the butter and mix it into the stuffing mixture.

Serve

Use the stuffing with roast duck or goose.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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.

Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,628 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs: Provide the bulk and body of the stuffing.
Spanish onions: Add moisture and savoury sweetness once cooked tender.
Beaten egg: Binds the crumbs and onions together so the stuffing holds its shape.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the stuffing.