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Stuffed Cabbage

A cabbage is boiled, stuffed with sausage, onion, spices, bread crumbs, then stewed in ham liquid and finished with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Boil the whole cabbage in a pot, tying a coarse net over it to keep its shape. Do not remove the net until the next day.

  2. Bind a broad strip of muslin around the cabbage to prevent cracking during stuffing.

  3. Extract the stalk with a thin, sharp knife and dig out the heart to create space for stuffing.

Stuff and stew

  1. Chop the removed cabbage heart and mix it with the cooked sausage meat, onion, pepper, salt, thyme, and bread crumbs.

  2. Stuff the cabbage with the mixture, remove the muslin band, and tie it up firmly in a net bag.

  3. Place the stuffed cabbage in a pot and cover it with the ham cooking liquid. Stew gently for one hour.

Finish

  1. Carefully remove the cabbage, unbind it, and pour a cup of drawn butter over it.

  2. Strain the remaining pot liquor and store it for later use.

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. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Its leaves hold the stuffed shape and wrap the filling while it stews.
Bread crumbs
Absorb cooking juices and help bind the filling so it stays moist.
Sausage meat
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that coats the finished cabbage.

The step that matters

Binding the cabbage before stuffing. The cabbage leaves can crack when the heart is removed and the filling is packed in. The muslin band holds the leaves together, and the tied net keeps the stuffed cabbage in shape while it stews.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, pepper, thyme, bread, butter, ham):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, pepper, thyme, bread, butter, ham. 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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