Name: Cabbage Rolls
Ingredients: 1 head of cabbage; pounded quenelle meat (chicken, ham, or tongue with anchovy); 1 egg; good brown gravy; crispy fried bacon for garnish; white tape

Why it works: Meat and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,432 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the cabbage head until the leaves are pliant.
Detach whole leaves and dry them on a clean cloth.
Place a dessert spoonful of the meat mixture on a cabbage leaf and roll it up like a sausage.
Wrap two or three more leaves around the roll and tie with white tape.
Repeat to make six or eight rolls.
Simmer the rolls gently in brown gravy until the leaves are cooked.
Remove the rolls, untie the tapes, and arrange them on a hot dish.
Thicken the gravy and pour it over the rolls, garnishing with crispy fried bacon.

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.

Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cabbage + meattop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together292 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + eggtop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,391 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).