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Red Cabbage

A slow‑cooked red cabbage slaw flavored with onion, bacon drippings, vinegar, and thickened with browned flour.

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

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 ↓

Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Make the slaw

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped onion, bacon drippings, water, and vinegar.

  2. Add the cut red cabbage and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook and thicken

  1. Cook in a fireless cooker overnight or on a slow flame on the gas for about 2 hours.

  2. Before serving, thicken the mixture with 1 tablespoon of browned flour.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Forms the bulk of the slaw and softens into tender strands during slow cooking.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the cabbage and onion.
Bacon drippings
Adds fat and savory flavor to the cabbage.
Browned flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a looser sauce around the cabbage.

The step that matters

Adding the browned flour. Flour must be stirred in evenly so it does not clump; lumps stay raw-tasting and uneven thickening results. Adding it before serving lets the liquid thicken once the cabbage has finished cooking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, pepper, flour. 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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