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Cold Ducks Stewed with Red Cabbage

A stew of cold duck pieces simmered with red cabbage, butter, pepper, sea salt, and wine or vinegar.

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 ↓

Cold Ducks Stewed with Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the duck

  1. Cut the cold ducks into convenient pieces.

  2. Warm the duck pieces gradually in some of their gravy.

Stew the cabbage

  1. Shred the red cabbage finely, wash it, and drain it on a sieve.

  2. In a covered stew-pan, stew the cabbage with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt, shaking it frequently.

  3. If the cabbage gets too dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of the gravy.

  4. When the cabbage is tender, add a small glass of wine or vinegar.

Serve

  1. Lay the cabbage on a dish, place the pieces of duck on top, 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 + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Cabbage + winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together186 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

Cold ducks
Provides the main meat, which is gently rewarmed so it stays tender.
Gravy from the ducks
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the duck and keeps the cabbage from drying out.
Red cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes tender through slow, covered stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the cabbage cook softly and carry flavor.
Wine or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, earthy flavor of the stewed cabbage.

The step that matters

Warming the duck gently in its gravy. High heat toughens meat proteins and dries the surface, so slow warming in gravy keeps the duck moist and tender rather than tough.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, wine. 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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