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Potato Kale

A creamy mash of boiled potatoes and cabbage, seasoned with butter, cream, salt, and pepper.

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 ↓

Potato Kale

Ingredients

Directions

Boil

  1. Boil the cabbage in salted water until nearly done.

  2. Peel the potatoes and add them to the boiling cabbage.

  3. Once the potatoes are soft, remove them and drain the cabbage.

Mash and finish

  1. In a saucepan, mash the potatoes and cabbage together until fine.

  2. Add the butter and cream, then season with salt and pepper.

  3. Heat the mixture over the fire, stirring until hot.

  4. Serve immediately, great with cold meat.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starchy base that mashes into a soft, smooth body.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild, slightly sweet vegetable flavour and texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the mash and softening its texture.

The step that matters

Mash until fine, before adding butter and cream. Potato starch breaks down into a smooth mash when cooked soft and worked while still hot. Overworking or cooling it can make it gluey or lumpy, so mash while the vegetables are hot and add the fat after.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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