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Cabbage Lettuce, Amebican Style

Cabbage lettuce leaves stuffed with veal, ham, onions, and breadcrumbs, baked and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 622 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cabbage Lettuce, Amebican Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Trim and wash the cabbage lettuces, then blanch them.

  2. Mix minced veal and ham with pepper, coarse sea salt, and finely chopped onions.

  3. Carefully open the lettuces and insert the meat mixture between the leaves.

  4. Tie each lettuce and brush with egg.

  5. Cover each lettuce with breadcrumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Arrange the lettuces in a well-buttered sauté pan.

  2. Cook in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for twenty minutes.

  3. Serve with tomato sauce poured around the base of the dish.

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 + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 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

Cabbage lettuces
Leaves wrap and hold the filling, and blanching softens them so they can be shaped and tied.
Minced veal
Provides the main meaty filling, giving body and a savoury flavour once cooked.
Minced ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the meat filling.
Egg
Brushed on the outside, it helps the breadcrumbs stick and promotes browning in the oven.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the outside of the lettuces as they bake.
Butter
Fat in the pan adds richness and helps the lettuces brown without sticking.

The step that matters

Carefully open the lettuces and insert the meat mixture between the leaves. Blanched leaves tear easily, and tearing lets filling leak out during cooking. Opening gently keeps each lettuce intact so the filling stays enclosed while it cooks.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, veal, ham, pepper, onion, egg, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, veal, ham, pepper, onion, egg, butter. 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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