Skip to main content
Main

Cabbage Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, mutton bones, cabbage, onion, herbs, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Cook the beef, onion, and bones in the water for four hours, boiling slowly.

  2. Boil the cabbage in two waters.

  3. Let the cabbage cool.

  4. Shred only the white parts of the cabbage into coarse dice.

  5. Cool the soup.

  6. Remove the fat.

Finish the soup

  1. Put the soup over the fire with pepper, salt, and chopped herbs.

  2. Boil for one minute.

  3. Skim.

  4. Add the cabbage.

  5. Heat the milk in a separate vessel.

  6. Stir in the floured butter.

  7. Boil until thickened.

  8. Pour the thickened milk into the tureen.

  9. When the cabbage soup reaches a boil, pour it over the milk.

  10. Stir well.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Lean beef
Simmered for four hours, it releases flavour and body into the broth.
Mutton bones
Cracked bones add gelatin and richness to the long-simmered broth.
White cabbage
Provides the main vegetable body and mild sweetness once cooked through.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the broth's flavour when poured into the tureen.
Butter and flour
Rubbed together, they thicken the milk into a smooth, lightly rich base.

The step that matters

Stir in the floured butter and boil until thickened. Flour must be fully mixed with the butter first and then cooked, because flour left raw or in lumps will not thicken evenly and can taste pasty.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, onion, milk, butter, flour, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, onion, milk, butter, flour, 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.

More cabbage soup recipes

Russian 7Savoy 5Beef 4Potato 3Red 3 See all 111 →

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes