Garlic is a herb with 317 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is propyl sulfide. It pairs most strongly with olive, sharing 231 flavor compounds. Garlic appears in 46,832 recipes, most commonly in indian cuisine.
Sulphurous vegetal notes with ethyl 2-methylbutanoate providing fruity links to pineapples and mangoes. Onion-dominant vegetable profile.
Compounds ranked by rarity — the higher the score, the more distinctive to this ingredient.
Of the ~226 molecules that drive perceived food aroma (Dunkel et al. 2014), Garlic's inventory contains 52. Most of the other 265 compounds are below detection threshold.
+ 40 more — showing top 12 by class and threshold.
Generalist = appears in >25% of foods (Maillard / fermentation products). Individualist = appears in <5% of foods (carries signature notes). Threshold values are in clean water — the actual perception threshold in a food matrix can differ substantially.
How Garlic's 317 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.
85 of 317 are distinctive to garlic — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.
Ordered by measured impact in garlic — concentration against odour threshold where both are published, then by how distinctive the molecule is across the graph. Molecules measured here but not established as odorants sit below those that are.
Ranked by median concentration across published studies. Only 16 of Garlic's 317 compounds have a measured concentration in the literature — the rest are confirmed present but not yet quantified. Bars are log-scaled.
Ranked by how often cooks actually use them together, across 453,403 recipes — the familiar answer first. Each pairing still carries its molecular score and shared-compound count; only the ORDER differs. Counts cover every characterised molecule the two ingredients have in common, not only the aroma-active ones, so they can exceed an ingredient’s aroma-compound count. For the chemistry-first view — where the surprising pairings live — see the molecular network below, the side-by-side comparison, or the Pairing Tool.
Garlic and its 10 closest compound-sharing relatives. Spoke thickness = shared compounds; circle size = that ingredient's own compound count. Drag to rearrange, scroll to zoom, click to open.
Compare Garlic side-by-side
Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.
The characteristic aroma compounds in blanched garlic were investigated by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE) combined with gas chrom... Read abstract →
The effects of freshly crushed garlic incorporated in raw ground meat at different rates 0 % to 2 % on colour, pigment forms, TBARS, peroxide, free fatty acids and volatilomic were... Read abstract →
Hospital workers have increased exposure risk of healthcare-associated infections due to the frontline nature of their work. Olfactory dysfunction is highly prevalent. The objectiv... Read abstract →
Thai roasted chilli seasoning is a condiment used to enhance the taste and aroma of foods, especially noodles. The characteristics of aroma-active compounds were analysed by using... Read abstract →
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of edible oil on the volatile aroma profile and storage quality of garlic paste, and to explore the underlying mechanisms. The admi... Read abstract →
