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Bubble and Squeak

A fried dish of sliced cold corned beef and cabbage, seasoned with pepper and optional garlic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bubble and Squeak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Slice the cold corned beef thinly.

  2. Fry the beef in a little clarified dripping in a frying pan.

  3. Drain the beef and keep it hot on a dish.

Fry the cabbage and assemble

  1. Quickly fry the cold cabbage in the same pan.

  2. Layer the beef and cabbage on the hot dish.

  3. Season with pepper and rub with garlic if desired.

  4. Serve very hot.

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.

  1. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cabbage + garlictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together635 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + garlictop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold corned beef
Provides the main savoury meat flavour and substance of the dish.
Cold cabbage
Adds bulk and a tender, lightly browned texture when fried quickly.
Clarified dripping
Conducts heat for frying and adds rich flavour and browning to the beef and cabbage.

The step that matters

Quickly fry the cold cabbage. Cabbage is already cooked, so it only needs a short, hot fry. Frying too long makes it soggy and steamed rather than lightly browned and crisp at the edges.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, cabbage, pepper):

  1. Celerybetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Dillabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cabbage, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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