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Cabbage ^etoufe'

A simmered cabbage dish with sausage, lard, and flour, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cabbage ^etoufe'

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Make two deep incisions across the cabbage head to cleanse it.

  2. Wash the cabbage thoroughly.

  3. Shake off excess water from the cabbage.

  4. Strew sausage meat between each leaf of the cabbage.

  5. Tie the cabbage with strips of white cloth to keep it in shape.

Cook

  1. Heat the lard in a large pot.

  2. Brown some flour in the heated lard.

  3. Add the cabbage to the pot.

  4. Cover the pot closely.

  5. Reduce the heat after 20 minutes.

  6. Simmer the cabbage for 2 hours.

  7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve the dish whole.

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. Cabbage + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together978 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cabbage + meattop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together292 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

White-head cabbage
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it simmers slowly.
Sausage meat
Adds richness and savory flavor as it cooks down between the cabbage leaves.
Lard
Carries heat and adds fat, helping the cabbage brown and cook evenly.
Flour
Browned in the fat to add a nutty color and flavor that thickens the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the lard. Flour that burns turns bitter and dark, while flour browned gently adds color and a toasted flavor. Stir constantly and watch closely as it changes.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, meat, 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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