Why it works: Cabbage and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,001 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Salmon Chowder
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the cabbage and onion finely.
Add salt to taste and let sit for twenty minutes.
Mix the cabbage and onion with the can of salmon.
Add a little vinegar and mix thoroughly.
Serve with or without lemon.
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 + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,001 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Cabbage + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together397 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Salmon + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,918 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, salmon, vinegar):
- Avocadofits better
- Limefits better
- Mangofits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, salmon, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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