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Cabbage Au Gratin

A baked cabbage dish topped with white sauce, cheese, and buttered crumbs.

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 Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into quarters.

  2. Cook in boiling salted water until tender.

  3. Chop the cabbage moderately and season with pepper and salt if necessary.

Assemble

  1. Add the finely chopped green pepper or pimiento.

  2. Cover with thin white sauce and mix well.

  3. Stir in the grated cheese.

  4. Sprinkle thickly with buttered crumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through and crumbs are 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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cabbage + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

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

Pepper and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes tender when cooked, giving the gratin its body.
Thin white sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess that binds the cabbage and cheese together.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top, adding richness and savoury flavour.
Buttered crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through butter and browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Chop the cabbage moderately after cooking. Cabbage cooked until tender is soft and watery, so chopping it to a moderate size keeps pieces intact and lets the sauce coat them evenly without turning mushy.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sauce, cheese. 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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