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Colcannon

A simple Irish dish of mashed potatoes mixed with boiled cabbage and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and cabbage work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 275 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Colcannon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the mashed potatoes and boiled cabbage.

  2. Heat the mixture together in a saucepan over low heat.

  3. Add the butter and stir until melted and well combined.

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. Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft, creamy body of the dish.
Boiled cabbage
Adds texture, mild sweetness and a fresh vegetable flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel as it melts into the mixture.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, 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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