Name: Stuffed Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 large firm cabbage; cold pork or ham (to taste); salt (to taste); pepper (to taste); bread crumbs (to taste)

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage.
Boil the cabbage in water for 10 minutes, then transfer it to very cold water.
Once cold, bind the cabbage with a piece of muslin to keep it intact.
Cut out the stalk with a thin sharp knife and scoop out the inside of the cabbage.
Chop the removed cabbage with a little cold pork or ham, then add salt, pepper, and bread crumbs.
Mix the filling together and stuff it back into the cabbage.
Cover the top with another piece of muslin and boil in water that has been used to cook ham or beef.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,371 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Cabbage + porktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together919 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).