Name: White or Red Cabbages in Salad
Ingredients: 1 head of white or red hard cabbage; coarse sea salt; vinegar; pepper

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

White or Red Cabbages in Salad

Ingredients

1 head of white or red hard cabbage
coarse sea salt
vinegar
pepper

Directions

Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage and check for cleanliness without washing it.
Cut the cabbage into four pieces, trim off the stump and coarse ends, and slice it thinly.
Place the sliced cabbage in a bowl and sprinkle with salt, vinegar, and pepper.
Cover and let it sit for 4 to 6 hours.
Afterward, discard the liquid, dress the cabbage as you would another salad, and 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.

Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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