Name: Cabbage Rolls
Ingredients: large cabbage leaves; finely chopped left-over meat; eggs; mace; string for tying

Why it works: Meat and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,432 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the cabbage leaves.
Fill each leaf with the chopped meat and eggs mixture.
Tie the rolls together with string.
Steam the rolls in a shallow dish with minimal water.
Serve with an egg sauce and flavor with mace.

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.

Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + macetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,339 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Cabbage + macetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together415 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Cabbage + meattop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together292 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + eggtop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,391 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).