Name: Colcannon with Pulse
Ingredients: 2 cups boiled cabbage; 1 cup boiled carrots (or potatoes); 2 tablespoons butter; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; 1 cup cooked peas, beans, or lentils; Spices (e.g., ground cinnamon, cloves, or curry powder)

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 ↓

Colcannon with Pulse

Ingredients

2 cups boiled cabbage
1 cup boiled carrots (or potatoes)
2 tablespoons butter
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 cup cooked peas, beans, or lentils
Spices (e.g., ground cinnamon, cloves, or curry powder)

Directions

Prepare

Chop or mash the boiled carrots (or potatoes) and mix with the boiled cabbage.
Add butter, salt, and pepper to the mixture and heat together.

Finish and serve

If using pulse, mix it in with the vegetables and season with spices.
Serve warm, ensuring the mixture is well combined.

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.

Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together981 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,505 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,994 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the mash a smooth, silky texture.
Cabbage: Provides the main bulk and a mild, slightly sweet vegetable flavour.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and body, and help bind the mash into a soft texture.
Peas, beans, or lentils: Add protein-rich body and a firmer bite that contrasts with the soft mash.

Swap the peas

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

Beansfits better
Chestnutfits better
Chickpeafits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, carrot, butter, pepper, cinnamon. 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.