Name: Fried Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 to 2 tablespoons butter; sliced boiled cabbage; 2 tablespoons vinegar (optional for tartness)

Why it works: Cabbage and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Cabbage

Ingredients

1 to 2 tablespoons butter
sliced boiled cabbage
2 tablespoons vinegar (optional for tartness)

Directions

Melt the butter in a hot skillet.
Add the sliced boiled cabbage and fry until light brown.
If a tart taste is desired, add vinegar before removing from heat.

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.

Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Butter + cabbagetop 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

Butter: Adds fat and richness and helps the cabbage brown in the hot pan.
Sliced boiled cabbage: Forms the bulk of the dish; its surface browns and softens as it fries.
Vinegar: Adds sharp acidity that brightens the buttery, mellow flavour of the cabbage.