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 ↓
Easter Sunday Dinner
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare hen and beef soup.
Cook fowl meat with tomato sauce and serve with potatoes.
Stuff cabbage with ham and cook until tender.
Fry lamb chops with onion until golden brown.
Serve with potato salad, strudel, and good wine.
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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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + lambtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together896 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,798 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,001 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, sauce, potato, ham, lamb, onion):
- Okrafits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, sauce, potato, ham, lamb, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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