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Stewed Cabbage

A dish of sliced cabbage simmered in milk and water, then browned with butter or suet and thickened with a flour slurry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Stewed Cabbage

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 ↓

Stewed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Simmer sliced cabbage in milk and water until tender.

  2. Drain the cabbage.

Brown and finish

  1. Heat butter or suet in a kettle.

  2. Add drained cabbage, pepper, and salt.

  3. Brown carefully to avoid burning.

  4. Mix flour with a little fresh butter, stir into 1 pint of hot water, adding cream if available.

  5. Pour the mixture over the cabbage.

  6. Let it simmer for 10 minutes.

  7. Serve hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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 bulk of the dish and becomes tender through simmering.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce that coats the cabbage.
Butter or suet
Adds fat for richness and helps the cabbage brown lightly in the kettle.
Milk
Adds mild sweetness and softness to the cabbage as it simmers.

The step that matters

Brown carefully to avoid burning.. Fat-cooked cabbage browns through the sugars it contains, which can turn bitter or scorched quickly over high heat. Gentle, watchful heat gives color and flavor without burning.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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