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Turnip-cabbage, Smothered and Glazed

A dish of parboiled turnip-cabbage filled with a mushroom and pork mixture, baked until glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 202 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Turnip-cabbage, Smothered and Glazed

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cabbages

  1. Peel the turnip-cabbages and parboil them until half cooked.

  2. Immerse them in cold water and drain on a napkin.

  3. Cut out the center of each cabbage with a round cutter without breaking them.

  4. Line a deep flat saucepan with thin slices of fat pork.

Make the filling

  1. In another saucepan, combine chopped mushrooms, shallot, and butter. Cover and cook until moisture is reduced.

  2. Finely chop the scooped-out cabbage and add it to the mushrooms.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Add 4 tablespoons of reduced Allemande sauce and mix in the egg yolks.

  5. Transfer the mixture to an earthen bowl and let it cool.

  6. Add the chicken forcemeat.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the centers of the cabbages with the mixture and moisten lightly with veal broth.

  2. Cover the pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until nicely glazed.

  3. Serve with reduced Allemande sauce flavored with essence of mushrooms.

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. Turnip + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Turnip-cabbages
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and becomes tender when parboiled and baked.
Fat pork
Lines the pan, releasing fat that keeps the cabbages moist and lightly flavored during baking.
Mushrooms
Add earthy aroma and savory depth to the filling as their moisture cooks off.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a cohesive, sliceable texture when heated.
Allemande sauce
Adds richness and body, binding the filling with a creamy, velvety texture.
Chicken forcemeat
Gives the filling a fine, tender body and savory meatiness.

The step that matters

Reducing the mushroom moisture. If the mushrooms are not cooked until their liquid has evaporated, the filling will be watery and dilute the sauce, leaving the cabbage soggy rather than richly set.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, pork, mushroom, shallot, butter, pepper, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, pork, mushroom, shallot, butter, pepper, nutmeg. 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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