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Bice with Cabbage, Biston Style

Parboiled Bice cooked with shredded cabbage, grated pork, broth, and seasonings, served with Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Bice with Cabbage, Biston Style

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. In a saucepan, combine grated pork, shredded cabbage, salt, pepper, and fennel seeds.

  2. Cover and cook on low heat until the cabbage is tender.

Add the rice and finish

  1. Add the parboiled Bice and moisten with broth.

  2. Cover and cook slowly until the Bice is done.

  3. Serve in a nice shape and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

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. Pepper + fenneltop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,216 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Cabbage + fenneltop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Pork + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,300 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh fat pork
Melts into the cabbage, adding richness and fat to the dish.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives moisture and a mild sweetness as it softens.
Bice
Absorbs the broth and cooking liquid, forming the body of the dish.
Broth
Supplies the liquid that moistens and cooks the rice as it swells.

The step that matters

Cook the Bice slowly after adding the broth. Rice absorbs liquid as it cooks, so too little heat or liquid can leave it firm, while too much can make it soggy. Slow, covered cooking lets the grains hydrate evenly and become tender.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, fennel, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, fennel, parmesan cheese. 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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