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Red Cabbage

A slow‑cooked stew of sliced red cabbage, apples, onions, butter, and claret wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Red 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 ↓

Red Cabbage

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cabbage into quarters and slice it thinly.

Make the stew

  1. In a large pot, layer the cabbage, apples, and onions, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.

  2. Add the butter and claret wine to the pot.

  3. Cover tightly and stew on low heat for 2.5 to 3 hours.

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. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  3. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

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

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 stew and softens into a tender, mellow texture as it cooks.
Sour apples
Their acidity balances the sweetness of the onions and the richness of the butter.
Onions
Release sugars as they cook slowly, adding sweetness and depth to the stew.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the stew taste smooth and rounded.
Claret wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and its liquid helps the vegetables stew without drying out.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and stew on low heat. Low, sealed heat lets the cabbage and onions soften slowly in their own moisture. High heat or a loose lid can scorch the bottom or leave the cabbage tough and watery.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, pepper, butter, wine. 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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