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 ↓
Choux a LA Creme
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cabbage
Wash, clean, and trim the cabbages.
Boil the cabbages in salted water until soft.
Drain the cabbages in a colander, squeezing out excess moisture.
Finish and serve
Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Add the drained cabbage to the melted butter and heat thoroughly.
Stir in a little cream and seasoning, then serve.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,397 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Cabbage + creamtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Cabbages
- Forms the main body of the dish; squeezing out water keeps the final texture from turning soggy.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, coating the cabbage and carrying flavour.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and a smooth, rich texture to the cooked cabbage.
The step that matters
Squeezing out excess moisture after draining. Cabbage holds a lot of water after boiling. If it is not squeezed well, the extra liquid dilutes the butter and cream and leaves the dish watery rather than creamy.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream):
- Potatofits better
- Onionfits better
- Leekfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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