Why it works: Cabbage and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,397 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Cabbages
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and boil
Pick and wash the cabbages thoroughly.
Boil the cabbages in a well-tinned copper saucepan with plenty of water.
Add a teaspoon of American pearl ash to the water for better color.
Remove the cabbages when the stalks are tender but before they lose color.
Serve
Serve young sprouts whole or chop the cabbage and sauté with butter for 5-6 minutes before serving.
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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Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,397 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cabbages
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and mild when boiled.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness when the chopped cabbage is sautéed.
The step that matters
Remove the cabbages when the stalks are tender but before they lose color. Boiling cabbage too long breaks down its cell walls and releases sulfur compounds, causing a dull color and strong smell, while stalks still need enough cooking to soften.
“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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