Name: Cabbage in Cream
Ingredients: 1 well blanched cabbage; 2 tablespoons butter; salt to taste; cream

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 ↓

Cabbage in Cream

Ingredients

1 well blanched cabbage
2 tablespoons butter
salt to taste
cream

Directions

Prepare

Chop the blanched cabbage finely.

Cook

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the chopped cabbage and a little salt.
Stir and cook until heated through.
Add cream to desired consistency and serve.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,397 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cabbage + creamtop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together778 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the main body of the dish and carries the texture once finely chopped and heated.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the cabbage coat and warm evenly in the pan.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, and thins the cabbage to the desired consistency.