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Cabbage Au Gbatin

A baked cabbage dish with bread, eggs, sausage, lamb, butter, and meat jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Au Gbatin

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Boil the cabbage in bouillon with a little pepper until tender, then drain and chop finely.

  2. In a pan over low heat, mix the chopped cabbage with 6 eggs and grated bread until it forms a stiff dough.

  3. Combine the dough with the thin slices of boiled lamb's breast and sausage.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into a dome on a serving dish.

  2. Cover the dome with thin slices of white bread, then pour beaten egg yolks and melted butter over the top.

  3. Bake in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Serve

  1. Before serving, remove a slice of bread from the top and pour melted meat jelly inside.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

  4. Rye + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Lamb + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together469 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the cabbage and meat into a stiff dough and enrich the mixture as it sets.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dome and gives it a tender, moist texture when chopped and boiled.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and helps the mixture hold together as a stiff dough.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the top brown golden in the oven.
Sausage
Adds savory flavor and fat to the dough.
Meat jelly
Adds moisture and savory richness when melted and poured inside the dome.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. Egg proteins set as they heat, so the dome needs enough time to firm up and brown. Pulling it too early leaves a loose, wet center that may not hold its shape when sliced.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rye, bread, butter, egg, lamb, pepper, meat):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rye, bread, butter, egg, lamb, pepper, meat. 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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