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Cabbage Soup

A simple soup made with shredded cabbage, onion, butter, water, milk, tapioca, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Wash the cabbage and remove the outer leaves.

  2. Shred the cabbage finely and cut into short lengths.

  3. Place the shredded cabbage in a saucepan and cover with water.

  4. Bring to a boil, then strain to remove the strong flavor.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in the saucepan, add the cabbage and chopped onion, and cook without browning.

  2. Add the boiling water and milk, then simmer for 20 minutes.

  3. Stir in the tapioca and cook until clear.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together660 recipes

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

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 soup and gives it its vegetable body and mild sweetness when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor as the vegetables soften in it.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mellow, rounded dairy flavor to the broth.
Tapioca
Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving a smoother, slightly clear body.

The step that matters

Cook the onion and cabbage without browning. Browning would add bitter, toasted flavors that clash with the delicate, mild soup. Gentle cooking softens the vegetables and draws out their natural sweetness.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, milk, parsley, 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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