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Stewed Cabbage

A cabbage stew made with meat or fish, bacon, breadcrumbs, rice, egg yolks, onion, herbs, salt, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Stewed Cabbage

Why it works: Cabbage and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,001 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the outer leaves and scoop out the heart of the cabbage.

  2. Stuff the cabbage with a mixture of minced meat or fish, bacon, breadcrumbs, or cold rice, bound with egg yolks and seasoned with onion and herbs.

  3. Tie the cabbage neatly and place it in a cooking pot or enamelled stewpan.

Stew and serve

  1. Simmer in water or stock for one hour.

  2. Remove the string before serving and pour over strained stock or a good sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Cabbage + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together361 recipes

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

  4. Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Parboiled cabbage
Forms the edible case that holds the stuffing while it stews.
Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing together so it holds its shape when cooked.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the stuffing a soft, cohesive texture.
Cold boiled rice
Adds bulk to the stuffing and absorbs moisture during stewing.

The step that matters

Simmer in water or stock for one hour. Simmering gently rather than boiling hard keeps the cabbage tender and the egg-bound stuffing set without breaking apart or toughening.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, rice, egg, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rice, egg, onion. 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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