Why it works: Cabbage and butter 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 ↓
Cabbages
Ingredients
Directions
Pick and wash the cabbages thoroughly.
Boil the cabbages in a well-tinned copper saucepan with plenty of water.
Add coarse sea salt to the water before adding the cabbages.
When the stalks are tender, remove the cabbages before they lose their color.
Chop the cabbages if desired, then melt butter in a saucepan and stir in the cabbages for 5-6 minutes.
Serve the cabbages on a dish.
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 + buttertop 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
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