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Cabbage Au Gratin

A baked cabbage dish with bacon, white sauce, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, and butter topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cabbage Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Parboil the cabbage until tender, then drain it well in a colander.

  2. Butter a round gratin dish and lay the bacon slices on the bottom.

  3. Place the cabbage on top of the bacon and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cover with thick white sauce, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.

  2. Dot with small pieces of butter and bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.

  3. Serve in the gratin dish.

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

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

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through parboiling.
Thick white sauce
Adds moisture and creamy richness that keeps the cabbage from drying out.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.
Bread crumbs
Crisp when baked, adding texture to the topping.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Bacon
Adds smoky, salty flavor that seasons the cabbage from below.

The step that matters

Drain the cabbage well after parboiling. Excess water left in the cabbage dilutes the white sauce and makes the gratin soggy instead of creamy and set.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sauce, parmesan 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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