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Boiling Vegetables

A general method for boiling cabbage, asparagus, peas, and potatoes with salt and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiling Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Boil cabbage in plenty of water with ¼ teaspoon baking soda for 20-30 minutes.

  2. Drain and dress the cabbage.

  3. Cut cabbage into 6-8 pieces.

  4. Boil the cut cabbage for 30 minutes.

Cook the other vegetables

  1. Boil peas for 20 minutes if young.

  2. Boil asparagus in a deep saucepan to keep heads above water.

  3. Pour off potatoes immediately when done.

  4. Cover the potatoes with a clean cloth.

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. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together217 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + asparagustop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together101 recipes

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

  4. Peas + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

Cabbage
Forms the main bulk of the dish and is softened by long boiling.
Baking soda
Raises the water's alkalinity, helping cabbage stay bright green while it cooks.
Potatoes
Starchy body that turns soft and floury when boiled and drained.
Peas
Sweet, tender vegetable whose texture depends on being young.

The step that matters

Boil the cut cabbage for 30 minutes. Cabbage cooked too briefly stays tough and sulphurous, while overcooking turns it grey and mushy. Keeping it in plenty of water helps it cook evenly and keeps its colour.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, peas, potato):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, peas, potato. 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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