Name: Mushroom Bourguignon
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 2 tblsp olive oil; 2 tblsp butter, softened; 900g Portobello Mushrooms, in 1/4 inch slices; 1/2 Carrot, finely diced; 1 small Onion, finely diced; 2 cloves Garlic, crushed; 125ml full-bodied red wine - Burgandy; 250ml Vegetable stock (use Beef if not making for vegetarians); 1 tblsp Tomato Puree; 1 tsp fresh Thyme leaves (1/2tsp if dried); 1 1/2 tblsp Plain Flour; 125g small onions - eg Shallots; Egg Noodles, for serving; To Serve - sour cream, chopped chives or parsley (Optional)

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 ↓

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 pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,700 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, butter, mushroom, onion, clove, garlic, red wine):

Tomatofits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, butter, mushroom, onion, clove, garlic, red wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1

Mushroom Bourguignon