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German Sour Cabbage

A sautéed cabbage dish flavored with lard or olive oil, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

German Sour Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat lard or olive oil in a deep pan over low heat.

  2. Add sugar and stir until it turns brown.

  3. Add the chopped cabbage and simmer for several hours.

  4. Stir in vinegar 15 minutes before serving.

  5. Serve hot.

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 + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + cabbagetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + cabbagetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 during long simmering.
Sugar
Caramelises when browned, adding colour and a deep sweetness that balances the sourness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dish its sour flavour, added late to keep it sharp.
Lard or olive oil
Fat that carries flavour and helps the cabbage cook evenly in the pan.

The step that matters

Stir in vinegar 15 minutes before serving. Vinegar's sharp flavour fades with prolonged heat, so adding it late keeps the sourness bright. Adding it too early leaves the dish flat and dull.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vinegar. 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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