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
Cut the cabbage into quarters and wash thoroughly in cold water.
Place the cabbage into a pot with beef or pork that has been boiling for 30 minutes and well 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 main body of the dish and becomes tender and soft as it cooks.
- Beef or pork
- Simmered in the water to give the broth savory flavor that the cabbage absorbs.
- Baking soda
- Raises the pH of the cooking liquid, which helps the cabbage stay bright green and soften.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda shortly before serving. Baking soda makes the water alkaline, which can soften cabbage and preserve its color, but too much or too early can turn it mushy and give it a soapy taste. Adding a small amount just before serving limits these effects.
“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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