Skip to main content
Main

Bubble-and-squeak

A British dish of fried beef and cabbage with onion, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Fry the beef

  1. Fry the slices of beef gently in a little butter, being careful not to dry them out.

  2. Lay the beef on a flat dish.

Cook the greens

  1. Cover the beef with fried greens.

  2. Boil cabbage sprouts or green savoys until tender.

  3. Drain the boiled greens.

  4. Mince the drained greens.

  5. Heat the minced greens with butter in a frying pan.

  6. Add the sliced onion.

  7. Season with pepper and salt.

Serve

  1. Serve the dish.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Cold boiled beef
Provides the savoury, meaty flavour that forms the base of the dish.
Cabbage
Supplies the bulk of the dish and softens to a tender, mild texture when boiled and fried.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, giving richness and light browning to the greens and beef.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it cooks with the greens.

The step that matters

Frying the beef gently. Beef left over from boiling is already lean and has little moisture, so high heat or long cooking toughens and dries it. A gentle fry with a little butter warms it through while keeping it tender.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, onion, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes