Name: Bubble and Squeak
Ingredients: cold potatoes; cabbage or any cold vegetables; 1 onion; a little salt meat; pepper; salt; a little nutmeg

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bubble and Squeak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

Chop the cold potatoes, cabbage, onion, salt meat, and seasonings together.
Fry the mixture in a pan until heated through.

Serve

Serve with cold meat.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,001 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold potatoes: Provide the starchy bulk that crisps and holds the mixture together when fried.
Cabbage: Adds moisture and a mild, slightly sweet flavour to the fried mixture.
Onion: Adds savoury depth and aroma that develops as it cooks in the pan.
Salt meat: Contributes salty, savoury fat that flavours the mixture and helps it brown.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cabbage, onion, meat, pepper):

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cabbage, onion, meat, 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.