Why it works: Cabbage and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,397 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Boiled Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Halve or quarter the cabbage and soak it in cold salted water to remove insects.
Drain well and place in a large pot of boiling salted water.
Cover and cook for 10 minutes, then change the water and do not cover.
Cook summer cabbage for 30 to 40 minutes, winter cabbage for 1 to 1.5 hours.
Drain thoroughly in a colander.
Serve dressed with melted butter, pepper, and salt, or with a cream sauce.
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.
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Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,397 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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