Name: Mixed Mushroom Chowder
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: Serves about six.
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or clarified butter; 1 pound assorted fresh mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces; fine grain sea salt & freshly ground pepper; 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped; 1 medium red onion, finely chopped; 2-3 tablespoons shoyu or soy sauce; 1 1/2 cups cooked pearled barley; 6 cups / 1.5 l good-tasting vegetable broth; 1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil; finely chopped chives, to serve

Why it works: Onion and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,907 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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 + chivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sesame + chivetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together89 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Olive + sesametop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,111 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mushroom + barleytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together110 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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 (olive, mushroom, pepper, sauce, barley, sesame, chive):

Spinachfits better
Shallotfits better
Welsh onionfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, mushroom, pepper, sauce, barley, sesame, chive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Barley	1 cup cooked (157g)	193
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Mushrooms	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Mixed Mushroom Chowder