Potage D'onions

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together27,232 recipes

   Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together68,474 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. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together42,912 recipes

   Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together8,676 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Onions

Softened slowly in butter, they become sweet and form the body of the soup.

Butter

Fat that carries flavour and helps the onions soften and brown gently.

Flour

Stirred into the onions to thicken the stock as the soup cooks.

Stock

Liquid base that gives the soup its main savoury flavour and body.

The step that matters

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, bread):

1. Shallotfits better
2. Capsicumfits better
3. Leekfits better
4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.