Name: Dressed Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 Savoy cabbage or regular cabbage; 3 oz. cooked ham or bacon; 1 oz. butter

Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Dressed Cabbage

Ingredients

1 Savoy cabbage or regular cabbage
3 oz. cooked ham or bacon
1 oz. butter

Directions

Cook the cabbage until tender, then drain and chop it finely.
In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the chopped cabbage and diced ham to the pan.
Season to taste and serve immediately while 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.

Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Cabbage + hamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together186 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,397 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a tender, mild vegetable texture.
Ham: Adds savoury, salty flavour and a meaty bite to the cabbage.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the cabbage as it warms.