Name: Ways of Cooking Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 firm head of cabbage; ½ cup milk; 2 tablespoons cornstarch; ¼ teaspoon mace or nutmeg; 1 small egg-sized lump of butter; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 heaping tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; pepper and salt 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 ↓

Ways of Cooking Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

Select a firm, crisp head of cabbage and boil it in plenty of water, keeping it covered.
Alternatively, cut up the cabbage, remove the hard core, and steam it to avoid cooking odors.
When tender, chop the cabbage in a wooden bowl.

Make the sauce and serve

Prepare a white sauce by thickening milk with cornstarch and flavoring it with mace or nutmeg.
Stir the chopped cabbage into the sauce and beat vigorously until pulpy.
Add a lump of butter and keep hot.
Serve with roast or poultry.

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).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the dish and, once chopped and beaten, gives it its pulpy body.
Cornstarch: Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the cabbage together.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, adding richness and creaminess.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a silky finish to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the chopped cabbage into the sauce and beat vigorously until pulpy. Cornstarch sauces thicken as starch granules swell and set when hot. Beating thoroughly breaks the cabbage into a uniform purée and spreads it evenly, while the sauce must stay hot so it does not thin or turn lumpy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, milk, egg, butter, vinegar, flour, pepper):

Tarragonfits better
Parsleyfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, milk, egg, butter, vinegar, flour, pepper. 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.