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Savoy Cabbage

Savoy cabbage sautéed with butter, flour, and thick cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Savoy Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Slice the savoy cabbage into thin strips, removing the stalk.

  2. Wash and drain the cabbage, then boil it in salted water until tender, about 30 to 40 minutes.

  3. Transfer the cabbage to a colander and press out excess water, then mince it slightly.

Cook in cream

  1. Melt the butter in a clean saucepan, add the cabbage, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Stir over low heat for a few minutes until dry.

  3. Dredge the flour over the cabbage and gradually add the cream, stirring continuously.

  4. Serve very hot.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cabbage + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together978 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Savoy cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and, once pressed dry, gives a tender, mildly sweet base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the cabbage as it cooks.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce that coats the cabbage.
Thick cream
Makes a rich, silky sauce that clings to the cabbage strands.

The step that matters

Adding the cream to the flour-dusted cabbage. Flour must be stirred in evenly before the cream is added gradually and stirred constantly; otherwise it clumps and the sauce turns lumpy instead of smooth and thick.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, flour, cream. 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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