Name: Cream Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 medium head of cabbage, shredded; ½ cup cream; 4 teaspoons butter; Salt, to taste

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Cabbage

Ingredients

1 medium head of cabbage, shredded
½ cup cream
4 teaspoons butter
Salt, to taste

Directions

Shred the cabbage as you would for coleslaw.
Cook the cabbage in salted water until tender.
Drain the cabbage and return it to the pot.
Add the cream and butter, stirring until the butter melts.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,397 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cabbage + creamtop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together778 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the dish and, once cooked until tender, provides its soft texture.
Cream: Adds richness and a silky, coating texture to the cooked cabbage.
Butter: Adds fat and flavour, helping the cream coat the cabbage smoothly.