Skip to main content
Main

Kohlrabi with Leaves

A boiled kohlrabi with its leaves, seasoned with salt, vinegar, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Kohlrabi and pepper work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Kohlrabi with Leaves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kohlrabi

  1. Remove the outer leaves from the kohlrabi and wash thoroughly. Soak the kohlrabi in cold water, then drain.

  2. Boil the kohlrabi in salted water for 10 minutes.

  3. Drain the boiled kohlrabi and pour it over fresh boiling water mixed with vinegar. Boil the kohlrabi for another 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Drain the kohlrabi, scrape the flesh, and slice it. Dip each slice in melted butter and arrange on a hot platter.

  2. Drain the cooked leaves, chop them finely, and return them to the heat with butter, pepper, and salt. Cook the leaves until heated through and heap them in the center of the platter.

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. Kohlrabi + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Kohlrabi + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Kohlrabi
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and mild when boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth coating that carries flavor across the slices and leaves.
Vinegar
Adds a touch of acidity to the boiling water, sharpening the mild flavor of the kohlrabi.

The step that matters

Second boil in vinegar water. Boiling the kohlrabi a second time in acidified water for a full 10 minutes softens the firm flesh fully. Too short a boil leaves it fibrous, while overcooking turns it soft and watery.

Swap the kohlrabi

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagefits better
  4. Kohlrabithe original

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

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes