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 ↓
Baked Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the cabbage
Boil the cabbage in water for 15 minutes.
Change the water to boiling water and continue boiling until tender.
Drain the cabbage and let it cool completely.
Chop the cabbage very fine.
Mix and bake
Add salt, pepper, butter, beaten eggs, and milk or cream to the cabbage and mix well.
Transfer the mixture to a buttered pudding dish.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until brown.
Serve hot in the pudding dish.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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 gives it its main body and mild sweetness when cooked.
- Eggs
- Bind the chopped cabbage and set during baking to hold the pudding together.
- Milk or cream
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard-like mixture tender as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor and helps the top brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Let the cabbage cool completely before mixing. Hot cabbage would begin to cook the beaten eggs unevenly and thin the mixture, so the eggs may not set smoothly and evenly during baking.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, egg, milk):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, egg, milk. 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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