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Boiled Cabbage

A boiled cabbage dish seasoned with salt, pepper, and optional butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Boiled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Quarter the large cabbage or cut small cabbages in half.

  2. Remove outer and bad leaves.

  3. Check for insects.

  4. Wash the cabbage.

  5. Soak the cabbage in cold water for 30 minutes.

Boil

  1. Place the cabbage in a covered pot with plenty of boiling salted water and cover.

  2. If the cabbage is old, boil for 10–15 minutes.

  3. Drain and replace with fresh boiling water.

  4. Boil until the stalk is tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain and press out excess water.

  2. Season with butter, pepper, and salt.

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. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Cabbage + buttertop 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

Cabbage
Is the main vegetable; its leaves soften and turn sweeter as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the cooked cabbage.

The step that matters

Drain and press out excess water. Cabbage holds a lot of water, and leftover moisture dilutes the seasoning and makes the cabbage taste watery. Pressing it out lets the butter, pepper and salt cling to the leaves.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.

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