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To Boil Green Vegetables

A method for boiling various green vegetables, such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, peas, and beans, with optional butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 305 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Boil Green Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove withered leaves from the greens and cut the stalk twice across.

  2. For young cabbages, cut them in half and tie the upper part with string.

  3. Pour boiling water over the greens to draw out insects.

  4. If not fresh, soak in cold water briefly before cooking.

Cook and drain

  1. Place greens in a large saucepan with boiling water, salt, and sugar.

  2. Cook gently after reaching boiling point for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on freshness.

  3. Skim the water and test for tenderness with a skewer.

  4. Once tender, strain immediately to prevent them from absorbing water.

  5. Press the greens dry in a colander.

  6. For Brussels sprouts, peas, and beans, return to the saucepan with a little butter and shake over heat to dry.

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. Cabbage + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cauliflower + beanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cauliflower + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Peas + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Cabbage + beanstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Greens
Form the main body of the dish, which softens and becomes tender as they cook.
Sea salt
Seasons the cooking water so the greens taste seasoned throughout.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy coating to the drained sprouts, peas, or beans.

The step that matters

Strain immediately once tender. Greens left in hot water keep cooking and can absorb water, which dilutes their flavor and turns them soggy. Draining at once preserves texture and taste.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, cauliflower, peas, beans, sugar, butter):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cauliflower, peas, beans, sugar, butter. 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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