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Kohl Cannon

A boiled greens dish with butter, cream, and onion, pressed and molded.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Kohl Cannon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the greens

  1. Boil the sprouts or greens until tender.

  2. Press them dry and chop if needed.

  3. Mash the greens well.

Season and heat

  1. Add salt, pepper, butter, and cream or milk.

  2. Place the raw onion in the center of the mixture.

  3. Heat over a clear fire until hot and dry enough to mold.

  4. Remove the onion before serving the kohl cannon.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sprouts or greens
Form the bulk of the dish and set its texture once mashed and heated.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the mashed greens.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture so the mash is soft and easy to shape.
Raw onion
Sits in the centre as an aromatic that flavours the mash as it heats, then is removed.

The step that matters

Heat over a clear fire until hot and dry enough to mold. Heat drives off surplus water so the mash holds its shape. Too little heat leaves it wet and slack, while overheating can scorch the butter and dairy and turn them bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, cream. 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.

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