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Fried Cabbage

A sautéed cabbage dish flavored with pork grease, salt, pepper, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Fried Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a skillet, combine the sliced cabbage, water, and pork grease.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil and cook until the water evaporates.

  4. Fry the cabbage in the grease until it turns a nice brown.

  5. Just before serving, add vinegar 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. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together919 recipes

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

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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 softens as it cooks, then browns in the fat.
Pork grease
Conducts heat for frying and carries flavor, helping the cabbage brown.
Water
Creates steam to soften the cabbage before the water evaporates and browning begins.
Vinegar
Adds acidity at the end to brighten the rich, fatty flavor.

The step that matters

Fry until the water has fully evaporated. Browning happens at the surface only once the free water is gone. If cabbage is still wet, it steams rather than browns, so the dish stays pale and soft.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, vinegar. 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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