Skip to main content
Main

To Boil Cabbage

A boiled cabbage dish seasoned with salt, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

To Boil Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cabbage into four parts, cutting down through the core.

  2. Soak the cabbage in a pan of cold water with 1 tablespoon of salt for 30 minutes to remove insects.

  3. Remove from water and slice the cabbage.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, bring water to a boil and add the cabbage, pushing it under the water with a spoon.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and cook for 25 to 45 minutes, depending on the cabbage's age.

  3. Drain the cabbage in a colander for about 2 minutes.

Finish

  1. Mince the cabbage in a chopping bowl.

  2. Season with butter, pepper, and additional salt if needed.

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
Is the main vegetable; cooking softens its fibres into a tender, mild dish.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, savoury coating to the cooked cabbage.

The step that matters

Cooking time in the boiling water. Cabbage turns mushy if overcooked and stays firm if undercooked. Cooking time depends on the cabbage's age, so check for tenderness toward the shorter end of the range.

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.

More boiled cabbage recipes

and Cauliflower 3 See all 153 →

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes