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Stuffed Cabbage

A cabbage shell filled with seasoned meat, bacon, onion, bread crumbs, and egg, steamed and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the stalk end of the cabbage, creating a hollow shell.

  2. Chop the round steak, bacon, and onion finely.

  3. Soak the bread crumbs in water, then wring them dry.

Assemble and cook

  1. Combine the meat, bacon, onion, soaked bread crumbs, beaten egg, and seasonings in a bowl.

  2. Mold the mixture into balls the size of a small egg and place them in the cabbage shell.

  3. Cover the balls with shreds of green pepper and steam until the cabbage is tender.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a serving platter and surround with tomato sauce.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the main meaty body and bulk of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Soaked and wrung dry, they bind the filling and keep it moist.
Beaten egg
Binds the chopped meat and crumbs so the balls hold their shape.
Cabbage
Forms the hollow shell that holds the filling and softens when steamed.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity to the finished dish around the cabbage.

The step that matters

Steam until the cabbage is tender. Steaming must be long enough to soften the cabbage fully, yet gentle enough that the meat balls stay moist and do not dry out or fall apart.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, bread, egg, pepper, tomato, sauce):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, bread, egg, pepper, tomato, sauce. 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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