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Stuffed Cabbage

A cabbage dish filled with seasoned meat and eggs, boiled or stewed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio) · 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 ↓

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Take a large, fresh cabbage and cut out the heart.

  2. Fill the vacancy with stuffing made of cooked chicken or veal, chopped very fine and highly seasoned and rolled into balls with yolk of egg.

  3. Tie the cabbage firmly together.

  4. Boil in a covered kettle for two hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Slice down a head of cabbage.

  2. Put in a stew-pan already prepared with a very little water; butter, salt and pepper.

  3. Cover and stew about twenty minutes, taking care not to let it burn.

  4. Beat and strain three eggs.

  5. Add half cup good vinegar (beat while pouring in vinegar).

  6. Turn mixture on cabbage, stirring briskly all the time.

  7. Serve immediately.

Fried variation

  1. To fry, slice, season, cover, stir frequently and fry twenty minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

142Calories
10 gProtein
6 gFat
13 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Broccoli1 cup chopped (156g)55
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio). 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. See the original page.

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. Vinegar + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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 edible shell and the bulk of the dish, becoming tender through long boiling and stewing.
Eggs
Beaten and combined with vinegar to thicken the sauce and give it a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that cuts the richness of the eggs and butter.
Cooked chicken or veal (in the method)
Provides savoury, meaty flavour and body to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Turn mixture on cabbage, stirring briskly all the time.. Eggs thicken when heated, so adding the beaten egg and vinegar mixture while stirring constantly keeps it smooth and prevents it from curdling in lumps.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, 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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