Name: To Dress Cabbages, Lettuces, Brocoli, and Cauliflower
Ingredients: ½ lb bacon or pork, sliced; 1 large cabbage or 2 small cabbages, quartered; 1 bunch of herbs; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 quart water or pot liquor

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Dress Cabbages, Lettuces, Brocoli, and Cauliflower

Ingredients

½ lb bacon or pork, sliced
1 large cabbage or 2 small cabbages, quartered
1 bunch of herbs
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 quart water or pot liquor

Directions

Place the bacon or pork slices at the bottom of a stew pan.
Add the quartered cabbage and the bunch of herbs, then season the mixture with pepper and salt.
Layer the remaining bacon or pork on top.
Pour in the water or pot liquor and let it simmer until the cabbage is tender.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + cabbagetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together919 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 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

Bacon or pork: Renders fat and flavour into the broth, adding savoury richness to the stew.
Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the stew and turns tender and sweet as it simmers.
Water or pot liquor: Provides the cooking liquid that gently simmers the cabbage and meat together.