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Thuringer Bratwurst with Red Cabbage

A braised red cabbage dish served with fried Thuringer bratwurst.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Thuringer Bratwurst with Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Make the red cabbage

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped red cabbage and onion with goose grease or lard.

  2. Add 2 cups of water, the sour apple, stick cinnamon, sugar, salt, white pepper, and vinegar.

  3. Cook over medium heat until the cabbage is tender.

Serve

  1. Meanwhile, fry the Thuringer bratwurst in a separate pan until cooked through.

  2. Serve the bratwurst alongside the cooked red cabbage.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cabbage + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cabbage + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Red cabbage
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender as it simmers.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that keeps the cabbage's red color bright and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharp acidity of the vinegar and apple.
Sour apple
Adds tartness and moisture that softens as the cabbage cooks.
Thuringer bratwurst
Provides the rich, savory meat served alongside the cabbage.

The step that matters

Cooking the red cabbage until tender. Cabbage needs a long, gentle simmer to soften its tough fibers fully. Acid from the vinegar can slow softening and keep the cabbage firm, so cook it until it is truly tender before serving.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, apple, cinnamon, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, apple, cinnamon, sugar, 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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