Name: To Boil Sprouts, Cabbages, Savoys, Lettuces, or Endive
Ingredients: green vegetables (sprouts, cabbages, savoys, lettuces, endive); salt; carbonate of soda

Why it works: Lettuce and endive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 284 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

To Boil Sprouts, Cabbages, Savoys, Lettuces, or Endive

Ingredients

green vegetables (sprouts, cabbages, savoys, lettuces, endive)
salt
carbonate of soda

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rapid boil.
Add a small amount of carbonate of soda to the boiling water.
Wash the endive, sprouts, and spring greens thoroughly before boiling.
Soak savoys, large lettuces, and close-leaved cabbages in salt water for at least 30 minutes to remove insects.
Trim the stems, remove decayed leaves, and cut the vegetables into halves or quarters.
Boil very young greens for 15 to 20 minutes, lettuces for 20 to 30 minutes, and large savoys or cabbages for 1 hour or more.
Check if the stalk is tender to determine if they are ready to 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.

Lettuce + endivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together284 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together622 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + endivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).