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Baked Cabbages

A baked cabbage dish with eggs, butter, cream, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Baked Cabbages

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Clean the cabbage and boil it in water for 15 minutes.

  2. Change the water and add more boiling water until the cabbage is very tender.

  3. Drain the cabbage and let it cool completely.

  4. Chop the cooled cabbage finely.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped cabbage, beaten eggs, butter, salt, pepper, and cream.

  2. Stir well and pour into a well-buttered pudding dish.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until brown.

  4. Serve very 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.

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its body and mild flavour.
Eggs
Bind the chopped cabbage together and set as the dish bakes, giving structure.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown during baking.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard-like mixture tender.

The step that matters

Boil until very tender, then cool completely. The cabbage must be fully softened so it blends evenly and does not leave firm pieces in the set custard. Cooling it before mixing with the beaten eggs keeps the eggs from scrambling in the hot cabbage, so the mixture sets smoothly in the oven.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, 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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