Name: Bubble and Squeak
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter; thin slices of cold corned beef, well peppered; cold boiled cabbage, chopped fine; 1 tablespoon pickled cucumber, chopped; 1 tablespoon onion, chopped; 1 teaspoon made mustard; coarse sea salt, to taste; pepper, to taste

Why it works: Cucumber and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,281 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bubble and Squeak

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
thin slices of cold corned beef, well peppered
cold boiled cabbage, chopped fine
1 tablespoon pickled cucumber, chopped
1 tablespoon onion, chopped
1 teaspoon made mustard
coarse sea salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Directions

In a chafing dish, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the cold corned beef and cook slightly.
Stir in the chopped cabbage, pickled cucumber, onion, and mustard.
Season with salt and pepper, then serve hot.

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.

Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 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).
Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together722 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Corned beef: Provides the savoury, meaty base and fat that flavours the whole dish.
Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the mixture and gives it a soft, slightly sweet texture when heated.
Butter: Adds fat for frying and richness, helping the mixture brown lightly in the pan.
Onion: Adds aromatic sweetness and savour that deepens as it cooks.
Pickled cucumber: Adds acidity that cuts through the richness of the meat and butter.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beef, cabbage, onion, mustard, pepper):

Horseradishfits better
Chivefits better
Potatofits better
Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, cabbage, onion, mustard, 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.