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Cabbage with Cream

A cabbage dish cooked with butter, cream, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Trim and wash the cabbage, quarter them, and remove the stalks.

  2. Cook the cabbage in lightly salted water until tender, then drain.

  3. Chop the cabbage finely on a chopping board.

Cook in cream

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the chopped cabbage.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and fry lightly for 10 minutes without scorching.

  3. Add the cream and reduce on a brisk fire.

  4. Before serving, add an additional piece of butter.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cabbage + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together187 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, once cooked and chopped, absorbs the cream and butter.
Heavy cream
Reduces to a thick, rich coating that gives the cabbage its creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor when melted, and a final knob adds gloss at serving.

The step that matters

Reducing the cream. Cream must simmer over a brisk fire long enough to thicken and coat the cabbage. Too little reduction leaves it watery, while too much heat can scorch the milk solids and cause the cream to separate or stick.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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