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Bubble and Squeak

A fried dish of sliced cold beef and boiled cabbage, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cabbage 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 ↓

Bubble and Squeak

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the beef

  1. Fry the beef slices in butter until light brown, being careful not to overcook.

Cook the cabbage

  1. Drain and chop the boiled cabbage or coleworts, then sprinkle with pepper and salt.

  2. Add the chopped cabbage to the frying pan after removing the beef, shaking it over the heat until hot.

Serve

  1. Place the cabbage in the center of a dish and arrange the beef slices around it.

  2. If desired, warm the cold gravy in the pan and serve it in the dish or separately.

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. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Beef + cabbagetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together872 recipes

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

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 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 salt beef
Provides the savoury meat base and browns in butter for flavour.
Boiled cabbage or coleworts
Forms the bulk of the dish and crisps slightly when shaken in the hot pan.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the beef.
Cold gravy from boiled beef
Adds moisture and meaty flavour when warmed as an optional accompaniment.

The step that matters

Frying the beef. Cold salt beef is already cooked, so overcooking it toughens and dries the meat. A brief fry in butter is enough to brown the surface and warm it through, which gives flavour without losing tenderness.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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