Why it works: Turnip and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 897 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Turnip-cabbage, with Cream Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the turnip-cabbages and cut them into scallops.
Cook
Boil them in lightly salted water with 1 tablespoon of butter until tender.
Drain the water and add 4 tablespoons of cream sauce and 1 tablespoon of butter.
Season with salt and pepper, then toss well in the pan.
Serve
Serve immediately.
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.
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Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together897 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,252 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
- Turnip-cabbages
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender when boiled.
- Cream sauce
- Adds richness and moisture, coating the turnip-cabbage pieces.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor, enriching both the boiling water and the finished dish.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, butter, cream, sauce, pepper):
- Leekfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, butter, cream, sauce, 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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