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Cooked Cabbage

A cabbage dish cooked with vinegar, butter, flour, egg, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cooked Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Place the shredded cabbage in an earthen kettle to cook.

  2. Cook slowly on the back of the stove.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix vinegar, butter, salt, pepper, flour, and egg until well combined.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and stir well.

  2. Before serving, add cream and mix well.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 softens as it cooks slowly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing a sharp, tangy flavour.
Egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks and binds it to the cabbage.
Flour
Helps thicken the dressing so it clings to the cabbage.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture when stirred in before serving.

The step that matters

Cook slowly on the back of the stove. Gentle, low heat lets the cabbage soften evenly and lets the egg and flour thicken the dressing without curdling or scorching. Rushing with high heat can make the egg scramble and the sauce turn grainy.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, pepper, flour, egg, 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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