Name: Colcannon
Ingredients: equal quantity of boiled cabbage; equal quantity of boiled potatoes; 2 ounces of butter; pepper; salt; onions (optional); carrots (optional)

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Colcannon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the boiled cabbage and potatoes into small pieces.
In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

Fry and serve

Add the chopped cabbage and potatoes to the skillet.
Season with pepper and salt, and fry together until heated through.
If desired, add chopped onions or carrots while frying.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 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

Boiled potatoes: Provide the starchy base that gives colcannon its soft, mashable body.
Boiled cabbage: Adds a tender texture and mild sweetness to the mixture.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, coating the vegetables as they fry.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, potato, butter, pepper, carrot):

Leekfits about as well
Turnipfits about as well
Parsnipfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, potato, butter, pepper, carrot. 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.