Name: Cream Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 small cabbage; coarse sea salt; white sauce; buttered bread crumbs

Why it works: Cabbage and bread work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 380 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Cream Cabbage

Ingredients

1 small cabbage
coarse sea salt
white sauce
buttered bread crumbs

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the tough stalk.
Soak the cabbage in cold salted water for 30 minutes.
Boil the cabbage in boiling salted water until tender.
Drain the cabbage and chop it finely.
Place the chopped cabbage in a baking dish.
Cover with white sauce and sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs.
Brown in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

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 + breadtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together380 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cabbage + saucetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together437 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).