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Cabbage Fried or Stewed

A dish of sliced cabbage stewed or fried with butter, water, eggs, and vinegar.

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 ↓

Cabbage Fried or Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the cabbage

  1. Combine sliced cabbage, water, butter, salt, and pepper in a stew-pan.

  2. Cover and stew for about 20 minutes, ensuring it doesn't burn.

Make the egg sauce

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add vinegar while continuing to beat.

  3. Pour the egg mixture over the cabbage, stirring briskly.

  4. Serve immediately.

Fry the cabbage

  1. Heat a skillet and add butter or beef drippings.

  2. Add sliced cabbage, season, cover, and stir frequently for 10 to 15 minutes, being careful not to burn.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 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 bulk of the dish and turns tender and mildly sweet as it stews.
Eggs
Thicken the liquid and bind it into a creamy sauce when heated with the cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and cuts the richness of the eggs and butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and browns lightly in the skillet for flavor.

The step that matters

Pouring the egg mixture over the cabbage. Egg proteins coagulate when heated, so they can form curds if the mixture hits hot cabbage in clumps. Stirring briskly disperses the egg evenly, so it thickens the dish smoothly.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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