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To Boil Cabbages, Savoys, Cauliflowers, Headed Broccoli, Etc.

A boiled cabbage dish seasoned with salt, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

To Boil Cabbages, Savoys, Cauliflowers, Headed Broccoli, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dress the cabbage and cut it into four parts from the top, keeping them attached to the stalk.

  2. Soak the cabbage in cold water with a little salt for one hour.

Boil

  1. Boil water in a pot, add salt, and then add the cabbage.

  2. Boil uncovered for 1 to 1.5 hours, adding boiling water as needed.

  3. Remove the cabbage and drain it in a colander.

  4. Rinse with cold water until cool.

  5. Return the cabbage to fresh boiling water and cook for two hours or until the stalk is tender.

  6. Drain again, pressing out excess water.

Serve

  1. Place in a deep dish, divide into quarters, and add pieces of butter and pepper.

  2. Cover the dish and 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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 soft and tender through long simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the cooked cabbage with flavour and moisture.

The step that matters

Draining and pressing out excess water. Cabbage releases a lot of water as it cooks. Pressing it out after the second boil keeps the cabbage from tasting watery and helps the butter and pepper cling to it.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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