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Puree of Cabbage and Potatoes

A creamy puree made from boiled potatoes and cabbage, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter or savory drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cabbage 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 ↓

Puree of Cabbage and Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes and place them in a pot with boiling water to cover.

  2. Cook for 30 minutes, then drain and mash until fine and light.

Finish the puree

  1. Stir in the hot milk, salt, pepper, and cabbage.

  2. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

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. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that mashes into the smooth body of the puree.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the mash and softening its texture.
Cabbage
Adds vegetable flavor and a finely textured bulk to the puree.
Butter or savory drippings
Adds fat for richness, mouthfeel and savory flavor.

The step that matters

Mashing the potatoes. Mash until fine and light but avoid overworking. Excess agitation releases starch from the potato cells, which makes the puree gluey and dense rather than light.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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