Name: A Dutch MacAdoine
Ingredients: 4-5 onions, sliced and chopped; butter; previously boiled vegetables, chopped; 2-3 sliced tomatoes; 2-3 minced chilis; salt; 2 tablespoons vinegar or a handful of sorrel

Why it works: Onion and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 20,622 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

In a pan, brown the sliced and chopped onions in butter.
Add the chopped, previously boiled vegetables and stir continuously.
When nearly done, add the sliced tomatoes and minced chilis.
Season with salt and stir in vinegar or sorrel before serving.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Onion + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together20,622 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together18,203 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Onion + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together42,827 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tomato + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together5,061 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + tomatotop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together6,890 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions: Browning in butter builds a sweet, savory base for the whole salad.
Butter: Fat for browning the onions and adding richness to the dish.
Previously boiled vegetables: Form the main body of the salad and absorb the flavors of the pan.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and a fresh, mild acidity as they soften in the pan.
Chilis: Add heat and aroma to the mixture.

Flavor stand-ins for the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, vinegar):

Potatobetter flavor fit
Mustardbetter flavor fit
Chiveabout as good a flavor fit
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, vinegar. 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).

“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.