Why it works: Cabbage and pork work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 919 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the outside leaves that are rusty, decayed, or soiled.
Cut off the stump close to the head.
Cook and serve
Boil the cabbage in plenty of water with the salt pork until tender, about 1.5 hours.
Drain and serve hot.
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.
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Cabbage + porktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together919 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
- Cabbage
- Forms the main body of the dish and turns soft and mild as it simmers.
- Salt pork
- Adds fat and savory, salty flavor that seasons the cooking water and the cabbage.
The step that matters
Boiling until tender. Cabbage cooks gradually, and boiling it too long breaks down its cell walls, leaving it mushy and giving off stronger sulfur smells. Check for tenderness before draining.
“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.
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