Name: Kohl Cannon, or Kale Cannon
Ingredients: mashed potatoes; kale or cabbage; butter; salt; pepper

Why it works: Potato and kale work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 171 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Kohl Cannon, or Kale Cannon

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the kale or cabbage until tender, then drain and chop finely.
Mix the chopped greens with the mashed potatoes.
Add butter, salt, and pepper to taste.
Stir until well combined and 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.

Potato + kaletop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together171 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Kale + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together492 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes: Forms the creamy base that holds the greens together.
Kale or cabbage: Adds texture and a slightly earthy, fibrous bite to the mash.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.