Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Braized Ox-cheek, with Stewed Cabbages
Ingredients
Directions
Braise
Prepare the ox cheek for braising as directed in previous instructions.
Add the German sausage and streaky bacon to the pot.
Cut the savoy cabbages in half, remove the stalks, and parboil them in water.
Tie the cabbages with string and cover with a buttered paper.
Braise gently for about 2 hours.
Prepare the components
Once done, press the ox cheek until cold, then cut into scallops.
Cut the bacon and sausage into neat scallops and keep hot in a sauté pan with half glaze.
Drain the cabbage in a colander, press in a napkin, and cut into cork-shaped pieces.
Plate and serve
Arrange the scallops of ox cheek, bacon, and sausage in a close circle on a serving dish.
Place the cabbage around the base as a border, topping each piece with a ring of carrot and a small pear-shaped turnip.
Fill the center with small fancy-shaped carrots and turnips boiled in broth with a little sugar.
Pour some Espagnole sauce around the base and serve.
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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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together897 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,505 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Butter + carrottop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,083 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
- Ox cheek
- Long gentle braising breaks down collagen, making the meat tender and moist.
- Streaky bacon
- Renders fat during cooking, adding savoury flavour and richness to the dish.
- German sausage
- Releases fat and seasoning during braising, adding savoury depth and richness.
- Savoy cabbages
- Mild, sweet-leaved vegetable that absorbs the braising flavours and gives texture.
- Half glaze
- Concentrated stock reduction that adds gloss, body and savoury depth to the bacon and sausage.
The step that matters
Braise gently for about 2 hours. Rapid boiling toughens meat and cooking too hard can leave the connective tissue in the ox cheek unmelted. A gentle simmer lets collagen convert to gelatin, so the cheek becomes tender enough to press and slice cleanly.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, turnip, sugar):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, turnip, sugar. 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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