Name: Stuffed Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 medium-sized cabbage; minced cold boiled ham (home boiled preferred); olive oil; cheese cloth

Why it works: Olive and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,802 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells apple, fatty. The science ↓

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients

1 medium-sized cabbage
minced cold boiled ham (home boiled preferred)
olive oil
cheese cloth

Directions

Cook the cabbage in boiling water for 15 minutes until the leaves can be opened like a rose.
Sprinkle the minced ham mixed with a little olive oil between each leaf.
Fold the leaves back together and tie them in cheese cloth.
Steam the cabbage for 1 to 2 hours, depending on its size.
Serve hot or cold, and slice to serve.

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.

Olive + cheesetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,802 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Cabbage + olivetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together685 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ham + cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Cabbage + hamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together186 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ham + olivetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together284 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).