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Canned Corn Beef with Creamed Cabbage

A dish of boiled cabbage mixed with cream sauce served with canned corned beef.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Canned Corn Beef with Creamed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into small pieces and soak in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the cabbage and cover it with boiling water.

  3. Boil uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes.

Make the creamed cabbage

  1. Drain the cabbage again and mix it with the cream sauce, seasoned to taste.

  2. Boil for 3 minutes.

Heat and serve

  1. While the cabbage is cooking, heat the canned corned beef in the can.

  2. Place the corned beef in the center of a platter.

  3. Arrange the creamed cabbage around the edge.

  4. Sprinkle with paprika.

  5. Garnish with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Corned beef
Provides the main protein and savory, salty flavor of the dish.
Cabbage
Provides the bulk and mild sweetness, which softens as it boils.
Cream sauce
Adds richness and moisture, coating the cabbage so it stays tender and creamy.

The step that matters

Boil the cabbage uncovered. Boiling uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes lets volatile sulfur compounds escape, which keeps the cabbage from tasting harsh. Covering it traps those compounds and gives a stronger, more sulfurous flavor.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, beef, pepper, cream, sauce, parsley):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, beef, pepper, cream, sauce, parsley. 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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