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Cabbage Soup

A cabbage soup with dumplings, sugar, salt, pepper, butter, and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Shave the cabbage finely.

  2. Boil the cabbage until tender.

  3. Add sugar, salt, and pepper.

  4. Drop in dumplings and cook until ready.

  5. Before serving, add butter and sweet cream to taste.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the main body of the soup and becomes soft and tender when boiled.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the savory broth and cabbage.
Dumplings
Add substance and soft, starchy bulk that absorbs the cooking liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and smoothness, softening the soup's flavor.

The step that matters

Drop in dumplings and cook until ready. Dumplings can turn gummy or stay raw in the middle if the liquid is not gently simmering and they are not cooked through. Keep the pot at a steady simmer, keep the lid on, and test one dumpling before serving.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, butter, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, butter, cream. 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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