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Creamed Cabbage

A cabbage dish cooked with butter, egg, cream, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

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 ↓

Creamed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Soak the finely cut cabbage in cold water for 1 hour, then drain.

  2. Place the cabbage in a covered kettle of boiling salted water for 15-20 minutes, then drain again.

Make the creamed cabbage

  1. Add vinegar, salt, and pepper to the cabbage and bring to a boil.

  2. Beat the egg with the cream and melted butter, then mix with the cabbage.

  3. Heat briefly over the fire, then transfer to a hot dish and serve.

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

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish, and its texture softens with soaking and boiling.
Egg
Thickens the cream sauce as it gently heats, giving it body.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, coating the cabbage in a smooth sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the creamy sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dish a sharp, tangy balance against the cream.

The step that matters

Heat briefly after adding the egg mixture. Egg proteins thicken the cream when gently heated, but too much heat can curdle the egg and make the sauce grainy. Keep the heat brief and moderate.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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