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Cabbage Sprouts or Young Greens

A simple boiled cabbage sprouts dish with streaked pork, seasoned with pepper, sea salt, butter, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cabbage Sprouts or Young Greens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and trim the cabbage sprouts or young greens.

  2. Boil in hot water with the streaked pork until tender.

Season and serve

  1. Drain and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Mince quickly to prevent cooling.

  3. Stir in melted butter and vinegar.

  4. Serve with sliced pork around the greens.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  3. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together919 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 sprouts
Forms the main leafy bulk, softening into a tender, edible vegetable when boiled.
Streaked pork
Flavours the cooking water and adds savoury fat and meaty taste to the greens.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, coating the greens and carrying their flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the greens and balances the richness of the fat.

The step that matters

Mince quickly to prevent cooling. Hot greens keep the melted butter fluid so it coats evenly. Once they cool, the fat firms up and the dish loses its smooth, glossy texture and warm flavour.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, butter, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, butter, vinegar. 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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