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Creamed Cabbage

Creamed cabbage is a cooked cabbage dish with cream, butter, milk, and flour.

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

Creamed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the cabbage

  1. Slice the cabbage as for coleslaw.

  2. Stew in a covered saucepan until tender.

  3. Drain the cabbage.

  4. Return it to the saucepan.

  5. Add the cream, butter, pepper, and salt.

  6. Let simmer for 2-3 minutes.

  7. Serve warm.

Cook in a skillet

  1. Add sliced cabbage to a hot skillet.

  2. Pour over 1 pint of boiling water.

  3. Cover the skillet.

  4. Cook for 10 minutes.

  5. Pour off the water.

  6. Add ½ cup of milk.

  7. When the milk boils, stir in 1 teaspoon of flour moistened with a little milk.

  8. Season.

  9. Cook briefly before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides the bulk, and softens into tender strands when stewed in liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the finished dish.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a glossy, rounded mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that becomes creamy and thickens once boiled.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a light sauce that coats the cabbage.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour mixture. Flour lumps if added dry, so it must be moistened with a little milk first. Once the liquid boils, its starch swells and thickens the sauce evenly.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, pepper, milk, flour. 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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