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Cream of Cabbage Soup

A creamy soup made from cabbage, onion, butter, milk, and seasonings.

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 ↓

Cream of Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Chop the cabbage.

  2. Add the chopped cabbage to the water.

  3. Cook until tender.

  4. Press the cooked cabbage through a sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a pot.

  2. Add the chopped onion.

  3. Cook slowly for five minutes.

  4. Stir in the flour.

  5. Add the scalded milk and the cabbage mixture.

  6. Cook for five minutes.

  7. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  8. Strain the soup.

  9. Serve.

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

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

  3. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 body of the soup and gives it its main vegetable flavor and texture when pressed smooth.
Butter
Carries flavor and adds richness as the fat that starts the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture so the soup becomes creamy rather than thin.
Milk
Makes the soup creamy and mild, adding body to the cabbage purée.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour. Flour must be cooked in the melted butter before liquid is added. Cooking it briefly removes the raw starch taste and lets it thicken smoothly without lumps.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, onion, flour. 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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