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Stewed Cabbage

A cabbage dish simmered with cream, sweet milk, and flour, served hot or cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Stewed Cabbage

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage finely, as for slaw.

  2. Boil in clear water for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the water and cover the cabbage with salted water.

  4. Cook until tender, then drain again.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the cream, sweet milk, and flour until smooth.

  2. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and serve hot or cold.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cabbage + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together978 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Cabbage + milktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 turns soft and tender through long simmering.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, mellow texture.
Sweet milk
Thins the dressing and adds milky body to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cream and milk mixture so it clings to the cabbage.

The step that matters

Mix the dressing until smooth. Flour clumps if it is not whisked into the cream and milk before heating or pouring. Lumps are hard to remove later, and a smooth mixture thickens evenly and coats the cabbage.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, flour):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, 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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