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Stewed Cabbage

A cabbage dish simmered in sweet milk, butter, pepper, and salt, finished with an egg yolk and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Stewed 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 ↓

Stewed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shred the cabbage as for coleslaw.

  2. Boil in water for 20 minutes, then drain thoroughly.

Cook

  1. Cover with sweet milk and cook until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Season to taste with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Just before serving, add the beaten egg yolk mixed with a little sweet cream.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the body of the dish, softening as it cooks into a tender stew.
Sweet milk
Cooks the cabbage gently, adding moisture and mild sweetness to the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the finished cabbage a rounder flavour.
Egg yolk
Added at the end with cream, it thickens the liquid lightly and enriches the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated, so if it goes into a boiling pot it can scramble and turn grainy. Stirring in the yolk and cream just before serving, with the heat low or off, keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, pepper, egg, 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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