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Cabbage Au Gratin

A baked casserole of cooked cabbage layered with white sauce, cheese, paprika, and buttered cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cabbage Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble the layers

  1. Layer half of the chopped cabbage in a buttered baking dish.

  2. Sprinkle with grated cheese, paprika, and salt as needed.

  3. Cover with a layer of white sauce.

  4. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of sauce.

Top and bake

  1. Mix cracker crumbs with melted butter and spread on top.

  2. Bake until hot and the crumbs are browned.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Cabbage + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

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

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 bulk of the dish and adds its mild, sweet vegetable flavor and moisture.
White sauce
Binds the layers together and keeps the dish moist as it bakes.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce to add richness and savory flavor.
Cracker crumbs
Toast in the oven to form a crisp, browned topping.
Melted butter
Coats the crumbs so they brown evenly and add richness.

The step that matters

Bake until the crumbs are browned. The dish must be heated through so the sauce and cheese are hot, while the buttered crumbs brown to form a crisp top. Stopping too early leaves the topping pale and soft.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, cheese, butter. 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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