Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Badger Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Smoke and save the badger bacon until nicely cured.
Boil cabbage or greens with the bacon for added flavor.
Use pepper and sugar generously, and limit salt.
For a delicious dish, roast a tender hare and serve with bacon.
Stuff the hare with a mixture of bread, oysters, thyme, pepper, salt, and parsley.
Baste the hare with oyster juice and a little butter before roasting.
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 + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,037 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits about as well
- Carrotfits about as well
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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