Name: Potatoes and Onions
Ingredients: 4 medium potatoes; 2 medium onions; 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potatoes and Onions

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes
2 medium onions
2 tablespoons butter

Directions

Prepare

Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them.
Boil the onions until soft, then pass them through a sieve.

Combine and serve

Mix the mashed potatoes and sieved onions in a stew-pan.
Add the butter and mix well.
Serve hot.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Form the bulk of the dish, giving a soft, fluffy texture when mashed.
Onions: Add mild sweetness and aroma as they soften during boiling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, making the mash smooth and silky.