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 ↓
Fresh Pork Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Lightly fry the sliced onions in a pan.
Add the broth, chopped mushrooms, minced garlic, vinegar, and spices.
Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
Reduce the sauce to a proper consistency, then skim off any fat and strain it.
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.
-
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,700 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
-
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,368 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
-
Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,663 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, mushroom, garlic, vinegar):
- Thymefits better
- Cuminfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mushroom, garlic, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipes
Caper Sauce180 recipes
Brown Sauce141 recipes
Dutch Sauce74 recipes