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Boiled Dinner

A boiled dinner of corned beef with cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Boiled Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Cover the corned beef with cold water and bring to a boil slowly for 20 minutes.

  2. Skim off any foam, then add the cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and turnips.

  3. Boil for an additional 5 minutes.

Rest

  1. Transfer to a fireless stove and let it sit for 4 hours.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 recipes

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

  5. Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 flavor of the dish.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the cooking liquid slightly and makes the dish filling.
Cabbage
Adds mild sweetness and a tender, vegetal texture after long cooking.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and color to the pot.
Turnips
Add a slightly peppery sweetness and firm texture that holds up to boiling.

The step that matters

Bringing the beef to a boil slowly. Starting in cold water and heating gradually lets the meat warm evenly and keeps its fibers from tightening and toughening. Skimming foam keeps the broth clear.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, potato, turnip):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, potato, turnip. 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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