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Bubble-and-squeak

A fried dish of leftover potatoes and cabbage or greens, seasoned with butter or oil, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bubble-and-squeak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the leftover potatoes and cooked cabbage or greens.

  2. Heat butter or oil in a skillet over medium heat.

Fry and season

  1. Add the chopped potatoes and greens to the skillet.

  2. Fry until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. 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

Leftover cooked potatoes
Provide the bulk of the dish and starch that crisps and browns in the hot fat.
Cooked cabbage or greens
Add moisture and a mild, slightly bitter flavour that balances the rich potatoes.
Butter or oil
Conducts heat and helps the surface brown and crisp in the skillet.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Stirring too often keeps the surface from touching the hot pan, so it steams instead of browning. Letting the mixture rest briefly between stirs lets the starch form a crisp, golden crust.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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