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Stuffed Cabbage

Stuffed Cabbage is a dish of cabbage leaves filled with sausage, egg yolks, chestnuts, and herbs, simmered in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Trim outer leaves from cabbage heads.

  2. Parboil the cabbages for 20 minutes, then immerse them in cold water and drain.

  3. Cut out the stalk and carefully separate the leaves from the center.

Stuff and tie

  1. Prepare the stuffing by mixing sausage meat with salt, pepper, spices, fine herbs, chopped egg yolks, and roasted chestnuts.

  2. Fill the center of the cabbages with the stuffing.

  3. Replace the leaves to form the shape.

  4. Cover the opening with a thin slice of pork.

  5. Tie the cabbages with string.

Braise

  1. Line a large saucepan with thin slices of pork.

  2. Place the cabbages inside the saucepan, opening on top.

  3. Garnish with sliced carrot, studded onions, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Cover with broth.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Cover and cook slowly until the cabbages are tender.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Carefully remove the cabbages.

  2. Discard the string.

  3. Place the cabbages on a serving dish.

  4. Strain the gravy into another saucepan.

  5. Remove excess grease from the gravy.

  6. Reduce the gravy.

  7. Thicken the gravy lightly.

  8. Pour the gravy over the stuffed cabbages before serving.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + chestnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 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

Sausage meat
Forms the savory, moist filling that holds the stuffed cabbage together while cooking.
Cabbage
Its leaves wrap the filling and become tender during slow braising.
Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing and add richness and body to the filling.
Roasted chestnuts
Add starchy body and a mildly sweet, nutty flavor to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until the cabbages are tender. A gentle simmer keeps the cabbage leaves intact and lets the sausage filling cook through without toughening or bursting the rolls.

Swap the chestnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, meat, pepper, egg, pork, carrot, onion):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chestnutthe original
  4. Peanutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, meat, pepper, egg, pork, carrot, onion. 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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