Why it works: Onion and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,364 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Onions, Stuffed
Ingredients
Directions
Peel the onions carefully and cut off a slice at the top.
Scoop out the insides of the onions.
Fill the onions with well-seasoned minced meat mixed with a little sauce.
Replace the tops of the onions.
Stew the onions very slowly for as long as possible.
Serve with brown sauce.
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.
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Onion + meattop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Meat + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,167 recipes
Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, sauce):
- Mustardfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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