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Stuffed Cabbage

A cabbage heart filled with chopped chicken or veal, egg yolks, salt, and pepper, then boiled.

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

  1. Cut out the heart of the cabbage.

  2. Fill the cavity with the finely chopped chicken or veal.

  3. Season the filling and roll into balls with the egg yolks.

  4. Tie the cabbage firmly together.

Cook

  1. Boil in a covered kettle for 2 hours.

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

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

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Cabbage + chickentop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together436 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the outer wrapper that holds the filling and softens as it cooks.
Cooked chicken or veal
Provides the savory, meaty filling that stays moist during long simmering.
Egg yolks
Bind the chopped meat so the filling holds together when rolled into balls.

The step that matters

Tie the cabbage firmly together. If the cabbage is loose, the filling can escape or fall out while the leaves soften and open during the long boil. A firm tie keeps the filling enclosed.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, 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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