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Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage rolls are boiled cabbage leaves filled with rice, onion, and meat, then simmered in a sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Separate the leaves of the cabbage and wash the cabbage leaves.

  2. Boil the leaves in water for about 10 minutes, then drain the water.

  3. Mix the stuffing: combine rice, onion, meat, milk, salt, and pepper.

Make and cook the rolls

  1. Take 1 tablespoon of stuffing, roll it in each cabbage leaf, and tie securely to form rolls.

  2. Brown the cabbage rolls in hot drippings in a pot.

  3. Add a little water and cook slowly for about 1 hour.

  4. Remove the cabbage rolls from the pot.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. To the drippings, add 2 tablespoons flour and stir until browned.

  2. Add 1 cup boiling water and ½ teaspoon kitchen bouquet, then pour the sauce over the cabbage rolls.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Leaves wrap the stuffing and become tender during the long slow cook.
Raw meat
Provides the main filling and rich savory flavor as it cooks inside the leaves.
Boiled rice
Bulks out the filling and absorbs juices, keeping the stuffing moist.
Flour
Thickens the drippings into a sauce once it is browned.
Drippings
Fat for browning the rolls, adding color and savory flavor.

The step that matters

Browning the flour in the drippings. Stirring the flour until browned builds color and nutty flavor and helps it thicken smoothly when boiling water is added. Stop too early and the sauce tastes raw and pale.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, onion, meat, milk, pepper, 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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