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Stuffed Cabbage, Fermiere

A cabbage dish filled with pepper, shallots, bacon, tomato, and cracker meal, baked in butter and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Cabbage, Fermiere

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leaves

  1. Remove the leaves from the cabbage carefully.

  2. Wash the leaves.

  3. Trim the thick veins.

  4. Soak the leaves in water with a pinch of baking soda for 1 hour.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a pan, sauté the chopped pepper and shallots in butter for a few minutes.

  2. Add the chicken broth.

  3. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Stir in the shredded bacon and diced tomato.

  5. Cook for an additional 15 minutes.

  6. Add enough cracker meal to absorb the moisture.

  7. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Roll and simmer

  1. Blanch the cabbage leaves in salted water.

  2. Drain the leaves.

  3. Press dry with a cloth.

  4. Spread the stuffing on the leaves.

  5. Roll the leaves up.

  6. Arrange the rolls in a sauté pan.

  7. Moisten with demi-glaze.

  8. Cover with oiled paper.

  9. Simmer for 1 hour on low heat.

  10. Serve on a hot platter.

  11. Garnish with fried parsley.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage leaves
Wrap the stuffing and hold its shape while the rolls simmer.
Bacon
Adds savory, salty fat that flavours the stuffing as it cooks.
Butter
Fat for sautéing the pepper and shallots, adding richness and aroma.
Cracker meal
Absorbs liquid from the stuffing so it holds together rather than running out.
Chicken broth
Moistens the stuffing and carries flavour into the filling.
Tomato
Adds moisture and gentle acidity to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Press the blanched leaves dry. Excess water left in the leaves or stuffing dilutes the filling and makes the rolls soggy. Pressing removes surface water so the stuffing stays concentrated and holds its shape during simmering.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, shallot, butter, chicken, tomato, nutmeg, parsley):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, shallot, butter, chicken, tomato, nutmeg, parsley. 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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