Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Cabbage

A simple cabbage dish simmered with butter, pepper, salt, chives, and a touch of gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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 the cabbage

  1. Boil the cabbage until tender, then press it dry in a cloth.

  2. Cut the cabbage very finely.

  3. Add pepper, salt, and chopped chives or green onions.

Stew

  1. Melt butter in a stewpan, then add the cabbage mixture.

  2. Warm together while stirring continuously.

  3. Add a little gravy and stew for a few more minutes.

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. Cabbage + chivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together63 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chive + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and softens into tender strands when boiled and stewed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the cabbage warm through smoothly.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth as the cabbage stews.

The step that matters

Pressing the cabbage dry. Excess water left in the boiled cabbage would dilute the butter and gravy and make the stew soggy. Pressing it in a cloth removes that water so the cabbage can absorb the butter and seasoning.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Cauliflowerfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, butter. 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 stewed cabbage recipes

Spanish 4 See all 68 →

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipesScalloped CabbageScalloped Cabbage16 recipes