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Cabbage LA Cauliflower

A cabbage dish cooked with butter, cream, eggs, sugar, vinegar, and cayenne pepper.

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 LA Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Combine chopped cabbage and water in a stewpan.

  2. Cover and cook until tender.

  3. Drain the water and add butter and salt.

  4. Stir in cream or milk and heat for a few minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat together egg yolks, sugar, vinegar, butter, and cayenne pepper in a separate saucepan.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring until it boils.

  3. Stir in the cream and let it boil.

Serve

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the cabbage before serving.

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the tender vegetable base that the creamy sauce is poured over.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they cook, giving it a smooth, custard-like body.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and moisture, softening the flavor and texture of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the sweetness and richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cook the egg yolk mixture over low heat. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but they can scramble if overheated. Low heat and constant stirring keep the sauce smooth and prevent lumps while it comes to a boil.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, egg, sugar, vinegar, 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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