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Cream of Cabbage Soup

A creamy soup made from cabbage, onion, butter, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cream of Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Chop the cabbage.

  2. Add the cabbage to the water.

  3. Cook until tender.

  4. Press through a sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter or drippings in a pot.

  2. Add the chopped onion.

  3. Cook slowly for five minutes.

  4. Stir in the flour.

  5. Add the scalded milk and cabbage mixture.

  6. Cook for an additional five minutes.

  7. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  8. Strain the soup, then 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the main body of the soup and its mild vegetable flavor once pressed through a sieve.
Butter or drippings
Fat that carries flavor and enriches the base of the soup.
Flour
Starch that thickens the milk and cabbage mixture as it heats, giving the soup body.
Milk
Adds creaminess, body, and gentle dairy sweetness to the soup.
Onion
Slow cooking in fat softens it and builds a sweet, savory aroma.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour before adding the milk. Flour must be stirred into the hot melted fat so it coats the starch granules evenly. Stirring keeps the starch from clumping when the liquid goes in, and the mixture thickens as it heats.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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