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Delicate Cabbage

A boiled cabbage dish seasoned with butter and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Delicate Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cabbage in cold water for several hours, then drain.

Boil

  1. Place the cabbage in a pot and cover with boiling water.

  2. Boil for about 45 minutes until thoroughly cooked.

  3. Add salt 10-15 minutes before removing from heat.

Drain and serve

  1. Transfer to a colander and press out excess water.

  2. Season with butter and pepper 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 + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,397 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the dish's body; boiling softens its fibres until tender and mild.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the cooked cabbage for a smoother mouthfeel.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the cabbage directly, bringing out its natural flavour during cooking.

The step that matters

Pressing out excess water. Cabbage holds a lot of water, and boiling leaves it waterlogged. Pressing it out in the colander concentrates its flavour and keeps the butter and pepper from being diluted.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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