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Kohl Cannon

A dish of mashed young greens with butter, cream, and onion, cooked until dry and molded.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Kohl Cannon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the sprouts or greens until tender, then press them dry and chop if needed.

  2. Mash the greens well.

Mix and heat

  1. Add salt, pepper, butter, and cream or milk to the mashed greens.

  2. Place the raw onion in the center of the mixture.

  3. Heat over a clear fire until hot and dry enough to mold.

  4. Remove the onion before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sprouts or greens
Provide the main bulk and green flavour, and are mashed into a soft base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, savoury mouthfeel.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness so the mashed greens blend together.
Raw onion
Infuses a sharp aroma into the mixture while it heats and is removed before serving.

The step that matters

Heating until dry enough to mold. The mixture must lose enough surface moisture to hold its shape, but heating too long over a fierce fire can scorch it or dry it out. Heat gently and check that it holds together when pressed.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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