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 ↓
Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Boil
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Add the cabbage and press it down occasionally.
Boil until tender, about 20 minutes for a small cabbage and 30-45 minutes for a large one.
Drain and serve
Drain the cabbage in a colander and press out excess water with the back of a plate.
Place the cabbage in a hot serving dish.
Score the top with a knife and sprinkle with salt and pepper before serving.
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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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage
- Forms the main body of the dish; boiling softens its tough leaves until tender.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cabbage directly at the table, bringing out its mild sweetness.
The step that matters
Draining and pressing the cabbage. Boiled cabbage holds a lot of water in its leaves. Pressing out the excess keeps the dish from tasting watery and diluted.
“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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