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Cabbage Scalloped with Cheese

A baked casserole of boiled cabbage layered with a white sauce, cheese, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cabbage Scalloped with Cheese

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

  1. Boil the cabbage in two pots of water, then drain and chop it finely.

  2. In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, stir in 1 tablespoon of flour, and thin with 1 cup of hot milk.

  3. Season the sauce with cayenne, coarse sea salt, and nutmeg.

  4. Rub a baking dish with garlic and butter it.

Layer and bake

  1. Spread a layer of cabbage in the dish, drizzle with lemon juice and onion juice.

  2. Cover with the white sauce and then with grated cheese.

  3. Repeat the layers, finishing with fine bread crumbs dotted with butter and sprinkled with cayenne.

  4. Bake covered at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, then uncover to brown.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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 casserole and becomes tender as it cooks.
Butter
Enriches the white sauce and helps the crumbs brown on top.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
Grated cheese
Melts into the layers and adds savory flavor and richness.

The step that matters

Thinning the white sauce with hot milk. Adding the milk gradually while stirring keeps the flour smooth and lump-free. Flour needs to be cooked in the melted butter so it thickens the sauce evenly rather than clumping.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper, nutmeg, clove, garlic. 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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