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Cabbage with Cream

A sautéed cabbage dish finished with cream and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cabbage with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Trim and wash the cabbage, quarter them, and remove the stalks.

  2. Cook the cabbage in lightly salted water until tender, then drain.

  3. Chop the cabbage finely on a chopping board.

Make the creamed cabbage

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then add the chopped cabbage.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and fry lightly for 10 minutes without scorching.

  3. Add the cream and reduce on a brisk fire.

  4. Before serving, add another tablespoon of butter.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cabbage + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together187 recipes

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

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 provides its vegetable texture once cooked and chopped.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the cabbage fry gently and giving a smooth finish.
Cream
Reduces to a thick, rich coating that clings to the cabbage and gives the creamed texture.
Ground nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic flavour that complements the cream and cabbage.

The step that matters

Reducing the cream. Cream thickens as its water evaporates and its fat and proteins concentrate. Boiling too hard or too long can scorch the milk solids or split the cream, so a brisk but watched reduction gives a smooth, clinging sauce.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, nutmeg, butter, cream. 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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