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Boiled Cabbage

Boiled cabbage is a simple dish of cabbage cooked in salted water, finished with butter, salt, pepper, and served with vinegar.

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 ↓

Boiled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Quarter the cabbage, remove the outer leaves, and cut out the stalk.

  2. Wash thoroughly, checking for insects, and place in a pot of boiling water.

  3. Dissolve 2 teaspoons of salt and a small pinch of baking soda in the water.

Cook

  1. Cook for 15 minutes after the water returns to a boil.

  2. Drain the water and refill with fresh boiling water from a kettle.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

  4. Drain in a colander, pressing to remove excess water.

Finish and serve

  1. Chop the cabbage quickly and stir in butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Return to the heat in a saucepan and stir until hot.

  3. Serve with vinegar on the side for those who like it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Is the main vegetable, cooked until tender and mild in flavour.
Baking soda
Raises the water's alkalinity, which helps the cabbage soften and keep its colour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty coating to the cooked cabbage.

The step that matters

Draining and pressing the cabbage. Cabbage holds a lot of water after boiling. Pressing out the excess keeps the final dish from tasting watery and helps the butter and seasoning cling to it.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagethe original
  4. Onionfits about as well

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