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Cabbage Soup

A simple soup made with cabbage, carrots, onions, bacon, and stock.

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

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Scald the cabbage.

  2. Cut the cabbage up.

  3. Drain the cabbage.

Make the soup

  1. Line a stewpan with the bacon.

  2. Add the cabbage, carrots, and onions.

  3. Moisten with skimmings from the stock.

  4. Simmer gently until the cabbage is tender.

  5. Add the stock.

  6. Stew softly for 30 minutes, skimming off any fat.

  7. Season with salt and pepper.

  8. Serve.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 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 soup and becomes tender through long gentle simmering.
Bacon
Lining the pan releases fat and savoury flavour into the soup.
Stock
Provides the liquid base that carries the flavour of the whole soup.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the soup.
Onions
Add aromatic savoury depth as they soften during simmering.

The step that matters

Stew softly for 30 minutes, skimming off any fat. A gentle simmer keeps the cabbage tender without breaking it down, while skimming removes rendered bacon fat that would otherwise make the soup greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, carrot, pepper. 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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