Name: A Nice Wav to Cook Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 small cabbage; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 egg-sized piece of butter; black pepper to taste

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 ↓

A Nice Wav to Cook Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

Cut the cabbage into small pieces.
Boil the cabbage in salted water for 1 hour.
Drain the cabbage through a colander.

Finish and serve

In a saucepan, heat the sweet milk and butter until hot but not boiling.
Add the cabbage to the milk mixture and let it warm through on the stove.
Serve hot, sprinkled with black pepper.

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).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the body of the dish and soaks up the buttery milk as it warms.
Sweet milk: Provides a mild, creamy liquid that coats the cabbage and softens its flavour.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the milk a smooth, velvety texture.