Name: Cabbage A-LA-cauliflower
Ingredients: 1 head of cabbage; ½ cup of cream or 1 cup of milk; 1 small piece of butter; ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cabbage A-LA-cauliflower

Ingredients

1 head of cabbage
½ cup of cream or 1 cup of milk
1 small piece of butter
¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt

Directions

Prepare

Cut the cabbage finely, as for slaw.

Cook

Place it in a stewpan and cover with water.
Keep it covered and cook until tender.
Drain off the water.

Finish and serve

Add the butter and salt.
Stir in the cream or milk.
Heat on the stove for a few minutes before serving.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,397 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cabbage + creamtop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together778 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 dish and becomes soft and tender when cooked covered in water.
Cream or milk: Adds moisture and richness, giving the cooked cabbage a softer, creamier texture.
Butter: Adds fat and rich flavour to the cooked cabbage.