Why it works: Cabbage and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 392 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Cut the lettuce or endive into squares and wash them thoroughly.
Chop the green onions.
Cook
Heat clarified butter over medium heat in a pan and fry the onions until golden brown.
Add the washed lettuce or endive to the pan and stew gently until cooked.
Drain the mixture in a sieve.
Combine the drained vegetables with the peas and stew together until heated through.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cabbage + peastop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together392 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,001 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42,827 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Onion + peastop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,460 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + peastop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,878 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage lettuce or endive
- Forms the main body of the dish and wilts into a tender, moist mass when stewed.
- Clarified butter
- Fat for frying the onions, adding richness and allowing browning without burning.
- Green onions
- Fried until golden to add sweetness and savory aroma to the base.
- Peas
- Add sweetness and a tender texture, stewed together with the greens until heated through.
The step that matters
Stewing the lettuce or endive until cooked. Greens hold a lot of water, so stewing gently over low-to-medium heat lets them soften and release moisture slowly. Stewing too hard can scorch the butter and onions and leave the leaves tough or watery.
Flavor stand-ins for the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, peas):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Leekbetter flavor fit
- Asparagusbetter flavor fit
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, peas. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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