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Scalloped Cabbage

A baked cabbage dish with butter, egg, and bread crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Scalloped Cabbage

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 ↓

Scalloped Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into quarters and boil in salted water until tender.

  2. Once cold, chop the cabbage and season with pepper and butter.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the egg and stir it into the cabbage mixture.

  2. Moisten the mixture with liquor from the beef pot.

Bake and brown

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased bake dish and cover with bread crumbs.

  2. Wet the bread crumbs with pot liquor and bake covered at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the cover and brown the top.

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

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 dish and gives it its tender, soft body.
Raw egg
Binds the chopped cabbage together so the mixture holds its shape when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the cabbage.
Liquor from the beef-pot
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the cabbage and crumbs.
Fine bread-crumbs
Form a crust on top that crisps and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Remove the cover and brown the top. Baking covered traps steam and keeps the crumbs pale and moist. Uncovering lets dry heat brown the crumbs and butter, which gives the crisp golden top the dish depends on.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, egg, beef, bread. 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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