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Cabbage a LA Cauliflower

A cabbage dish cooked with milk or cream, sour cream, vinegar, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 a LA Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the cabbage

  1. Boil the whole cabbage gently in water until tender.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, then add milk or cream.

  3. Serve hot.

Alternative method

  1. For the alternative method, slice or chop the cabbage finely.

  2. Cook in a kettle with just enough water to prevent burning.

  3. In a bowl, beat together sour cream, vinegar, eggs, and butter.

  4. Pour the mixture over the cooked cabbage and let it boil once.

  5. Serve immediately.

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 softens into tender pieces with gentle cooking.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness to the cabbage.
Sour cream
Adds tang and richness to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the dairy.
Eggs
Set when heated, thickening the sauce and binding it to the cabbage.
Butter
Adds fat, richness and flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Letting the egg sauce boil only once. Egg proteins set and curdle when overheated or boiled for too long, which makes the sauce grainy. Bringing it up to a boil once and serving right away keeps it smooth.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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