Skip to main content
Main

To Stew Cabbage

A creamy cabbage stew made with milk, butter, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

To Stew Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Parboil the cabbage in milk and water, then drain it.

  2. Shred the cabbage and place it in a stewpan.

  3. Add butter, cream, and seasoning.

  4. Stew until tender.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  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 main body of the dish, becoming soft and tender as it stews.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the stewed cabbage.
Butter
Adds fat for rich flavour and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
Milk
Gently cooks the cabbage during parboiling and adds a mild, creamy note.

The step that matters

Stew until tender. Stewing gently over low heat softens the cabbage's fibres and lets it absorb the cream and butter. Rushing or boiling hard can scorch the dairy and leave the cabbage firm or uneven.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, cream, 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.

More creamed cabbage recipes

Salad 7 See all 121 →

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes