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Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage rolls stuffed with seasoned beef and rice, simmered with tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cabbage 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 Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Season the beef with salt, pepper, onion juice, and sugar.

  2. Mix the seasoned beef with cooked rice.

Roll the cabbage

  1. Soak the cabbage leaves in hot water for a few minutes to soften them.

  2. Place a portion of the meat mixture in each cabbage leaf and roll them up.

Simmer and serve

  1. In a kettle, place the cabbage rolls and add the tomatoes and a little water.

  2. Simmer until the cabbage is tender and well browned.

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. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + cabbagetop 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

Lean raw beef
Provides the main meaty filling that cooks through inside the rolls.
Cooked rice
Absorbs juices and adds bulk, keeping the filling moist and tender.
Cabbage leaves
Wrap the filling and become tender and sweet as they simmer.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid that flavour and moisten the simmering sauce.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and vinegar and aids browning.

The step that matters

Simmer until the cabbage is tender and well browned. Cabbage needs a long, gentle simmer to soften its tough fibres fully. Cooking too hard or too briefly leaves it tough or the filling undercooked, so keep the liquid at a low simmer.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, pepper, sugar, vinegar, rice, tomato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, pepper, sugar, vinegar, rice, tomato. 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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