Why it works: Butter and cabbage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,397 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Holstein Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the soup base
Bring the brown stock and fresh broth to a boil.
In a pan, melt the butter and fry the grits until yellowish.
Cook and finish
Add the fried grits and finely cut red cabbage to the boiling soup.
Let it boil for an hour.
Strain the soup through a fine sieve and dilute with more broth if necessary.
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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Butter + cabbagetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,397 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grits
- Thicken the soup and add body as they cook down in the broth.
- Butter
- Carries the frying of the grits, adding richness and a golden colour.
- Red cabbage
- Adds flavour and colour to the soup as it simmers.
The step that matters
Frying the grits until yellowish. Frying grits in butter toasts their starch and deepens flavour. Stopping too early leaves a raw, flat taste, while over-browning can make the soup bitter.
“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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