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Stewed Cabbage

A cabbage stew cooked with ham, butter, broth, vinegar, sugar, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Stewed Cabbage

Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

  1. Slice the cabbage very thin and wash it.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the cabbage, ham, butter, broth, and vinegar.

  3. Stew for three hours until tender.

Season and serve

  1. Add more broth or gravy, pepper, salt, and sugar.

  2. Mix well and boil until the liquid is nearly gone.

  3. Serve in a dish and top with fried sausages.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage (in the method)
Forms the bulk of the dish and turns tender and soft during long stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour, helping the cabbage feel silky.
Broth
Provides the cooking liquid that softens the cabbage and forms the base of the sauce.
Ham
Adds smoky, savoury flavour to the stewing liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and savoury notes.

The step that matters

Boil until the liquid is nearly gone. Reducing the liquid concentrates flavour and turns the leftover juices into a thicker sauce. Stopping too early leaves the dish watery, while over-reducing can make it dry and sticky.

“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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