Name: Cabbage Au Gratin
Ingredients: 1 young cabbage, trimmed and washed; 2 tablespoons butter; thin slices of boiled bacon; salt to taste; pepper to taste; 1 cup thick white sauce; ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese; ½ cup breadcrumbs; 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

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 Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Parboil the cabbage until tender, then drain it well.
Butter a gratin dish and line it with the bacon slices.

Assemble

Place the cabbage on top of the bacon and season with salt and pepper.
Cover the cabbage with the thick white sauce.
Sprinkle the grated Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs on top.
Dot with small pieces of butter and bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

Serve

Serve directly in the gratin 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.

Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,294 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 tender when parboiled and baked.
Thick white sauce: Provides a creamy, moist layer that binds the dish together.
Parmesan cheese: Melts and browns on the surface, adding savoury flavour and colour.
Breadcrumbs: Crisp up in the oven, adding a golden, textured topping.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the topping brown evenly.
Bacon: Adds smoky, savoury flavour that seasons the cabbage from below.

The step that matters

Drain the parboiled cabbage well. Excess water left in the cabbage dilutes the white sauce and makes the gratin watery rather than creamy.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, sauce, parmesan cheese):

Tomatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sauce, parmesan cheese. 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.