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Potatoes with Cabbage

A simple sauté of cold potatoes and cabbage cooked in butter or dripping, seasoned with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Potatoes with Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop cold potatoes and cabbage together.

  2. Fry in butter or dripping over medium heat.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Stir constantly with a wooden or iron spoon until heated through.

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.

  1. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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

Cold potatoes
Cooked, cold potatoes hold their shape when fried and develop crisp, browned edges.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a tender, slightly sweet texture as it softens in the fat.
Butter or dripping
Conducts heat evenly and adds fat for browning and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until heated through. Constant stirring keeps the potatoes and cabbage from scorching on the hot pan while the starches and vegetables warm evenly. Stopping too early leaves the centre cold, and letting the mixture sit too long lets the surface burn before the rest is hot.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper. 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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