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Garbure of Cabbage

Slow-cooked cabbage in veal stock with goose liver fat, served with cheese and dinner rolls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and liver match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Garbure of Cabbage

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the Savoy cabbage into four pieces.

  2. Remove the core from the cabbage pieces.

  3. Wash the cabbage well.

  4. Parboil the cabbage for 15 minutes.

  5. Refresh the cabbage in cold water.

  6. Press the cabbage firmly to extract all the water.

Braise the cabbage

  1. Place the cabbage in a small saucepan.

  2. Moisten the cabbage with veal stock.

  3. Add the goose liver fat to the cabbage.

  4. Cover tightly.

  5. Cook in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3 hours.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the cabbage into silver shells.

  2. Sprinkle the cabbage with cheese.

  3. Bake the cabbage in the oven.

  4. Slice the dinner rolls and toast them.

  5. Serve the cabbage alongside a rich consomme.

  6. Serve the dinner rolls separately with the cabbage.

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. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  2. Liver + cheesetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together44 recipes

    Shared aroma: cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

  3. Cabbage + vealtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Veal + cheesetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

  5. Cabbage + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 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

Savoy cabbage
Forms the main body of the stew, becoming tender and absorbing the stock and fat during slow cooking.
Veal stock
Moistens the cabbage and carries savory flavor through the long, gentle braise.
Goose liver fat
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel, coating the cabbage as it cooks.
Cheese
Melts and browns on top during baking, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Press the cabbage firmly after parboiling. Cabbage holds a lot of water. Removing it keeps the stew from becoming watery, so the stock and fat can season and enrich the leaves instead of being diluted during the long braise.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, liver, cheese):

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, liver, cheese. 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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