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Cabbage and Potatoes

A simple side dish of cooked cabbage and potatoes sautéed with butter, milk, flour, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cabbage and Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cooked cabbage and potatoes finely.

  2. Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. In a chafing dish, heat the butter until hot.

  2. Add the milk or cream to the butter and heat until hot.

  3. Stir in the chopped vegetables and 1 teaspoon of flour until everything is 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cabbage + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides the main bulk and a mild, slightly sweet vegetable flavor.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, giving the mixture a soft, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and helping the vegetables feel moist.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and creaminess, helping bind the chopped vegetables together.
Flour
Thickens the liquid slightly, helping the mixture hold together rather than separate.

The step that matters

Stir in the chopped vegetables and flour until very hot. Flour needs to be stirred well into the butter and milk so it does not clump. Heating it fully cooks out its raw taste and lets it thicken the mixture evenly.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, butter, milk, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, butter, milk, flour. 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.

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