Name: Cabbage Baked with Cheese
Ingredients: cooked cabbage, chopped; white sauce; cheese, grated; coarse sea salt; black pepper

Why it works: Cabbage and cheese work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and 90 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble

In a baking dish, layer the chopped cabbage, white sauce, and grated cheese.
Season each layer with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Finish with a layer of cheese on top.

Bake

Bake until browned and bubbly.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Cabbage + cheesetop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together90 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together4,080 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cheese + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together7,861 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sauce + cheesetop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together1,985 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + peppertop 17% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together15,299 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,299 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked cabbage: Forms the bulk of the bake and holds its moisture as it cooks.
White sauce: Adds creamy moisture that keeps the layers tender while they bake.
Cheese: Melts into the sauce and browns on top, adding rich flavour and a golden crust.

“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.