Why it works: Cabbage and beef work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 872 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Boiled Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the cabbage into quarters and wash thoroughly in cold water.
Cook
Place the cabbage in a pot with beef or pork that has been boiling for 30 minutes and skimmed.
Boil until the cabbage is tender.
A little before serving, add ¼ teaspoon of baking soda.
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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Cabbage + beeftop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together872 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
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage
- Forms the bulk of the dish and turns tender as it simmers.
- Beef or pork
- Flavours the cooking liquid as its fats and juices dissolve into it.
- Baking soda
- Raises the pH, helping cabbage keep a green colour while it cooks.
The step that matters
Add the baking soda near the end. Baking soda makes the cooking liquid alkaline, which helps cabbage stay green but also softens its cell walls. Adding too much, or adding it too early, can leave the cabbage mushy.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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