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Red Cabbage Stewed

A stew of shredded red cabbage cooked with butter, flour, water, salt, vinegar, milk, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Red Cabbage Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the outer leaves and stalks from the cabbage, then cut it in half and wash it.

  2. Shred the cabbage finely, wash it again in cold water, and drain in a colander.

Cook the stew

  1. In a large deep skillet, melt the butter and mix in the flour, cooking for 1 minute.

  2. Add the boiling water and salt, then stir in the cabbage and cover.

  3. Cook for 30 minutes, then add the cider vinegar.

  4. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sweet milk, then stir into the cabbage.

  5. Let it simmer slowly for another 30 minutes until almost dry.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the stew and softens as it cooks, giving the dish its body.
Egg yolks
Enriches the stew and thickens it slightly as they cook into the cabbage.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the cabbage.
Flour
Cooked with the butter, it helps thicken the liquid in the stew.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps keep the red colour of the cabbage.
Milk
Adds richness and moisture, mellowing the stew when combined with the yolks.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks and milk. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they hit very hot liquid directly. Beating them with the milk first and stirring gently into the cabbage helps them blend smoothly and thicken evenly.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cider, vinegar, milk, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cider, vinegar, milk, egg. 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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