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Cabbage Au Gratin

A baked cabbage dish layered with a creamy sauce, bread crumbs, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cabbage Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Soak the cabbage in cold water for 1 hour to crisp.

  2. Boil the cabbage in salted water until tender, about 10-15 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter, then stir in 1 tablespoon of flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add 1 cup of milk, stirring until the sauce thickens.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the crumbled bread with 1 tablespoon of melted butter until evenly coated.

  2. In a baking dish, layer the cabbage and sauce, finishing with the cabbage on top.

  3. Sprinkle the buttered crumbs and grated cheese over the top.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown, about 20-25 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.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 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 bulk of the dish and becomes tender and sweet when boiled and baked.
All-purpose flour
Combined with butter to make a roux that thickens the milk into a sauce.
Milk
Forms the base of the white sauce that moistens the cabbage.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top for flavor and a golden crust.
Stale bread
Crumbs coated in butter form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux and sauce. Cooking the flour in butter before adding milk removes its raw taste and lets it thicken the milk evenly. Adding milk too fast or skipping stirring can leave lumps or a thin sauce.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, cheese, bread. 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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