Why it works: Leek and raisin share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and 2 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the cabbage
Boil the tender part of the cabbage and drain the water.
Season and stew
Season with cumin seeds, coarse sea salt, old wine, oil, black pepper, alisander, mint, coriander seeds, gravy, and oil.
Stew the boiled cabbage in a saucepan with gravy, oil, wine, cumin seeds, black pepper, leeks, and green coriander.
Add almond flour and sun-dried raisins to the mixture.
Cook again with green olives.
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.
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Leek + raisintop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,866 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Mint + coriandertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together940 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Cabbage + peppertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,080 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + leektop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together214 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage
- Forms the bulk of the stew and absorbs the seasoning and cooking liquid as it simmers.
- Almond flour
- Thickens the stew slightly and adds a nutty body to the liquid.
- Sun-dried raisins
- Add concentrated sweetness that balances the savoury spices and wine.
- Green olives
- Contribute brininess and a sharp, savoury note to the finished stew.
Flavor stand-ins for the leek
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cumin, wine, pepper, mint, coriander, onion):
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Leekthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cumin, wine, pepper, mint, coriander, onion. 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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