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Soup

Cabbage Soup

A hearty soup made with mutton, bacon, liver, sheep's melts, cabbage, carrots, leeks, potatoes, onion, garlic, and a burnt bread crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large pot, combine the mutton, bacon, liver, and sheep's melts.

  2. Fill the pot two-thirds full with cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. Skim off any foam, then add the cabbage, carrots, leeks, potatoes, onion, and garlic.

Simmer and serve

  1. Reduce heat and let simmer gently for 3 hours.

  2. After 2 hours, add seasoning and the burnt crust of bread in a net.

  3. Remove the net before serving.

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. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cabbage + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Scrag end of neck of mutton
Releases rich meat flavour and gelatin into the broth during slow simmering.
Streaked bacon
Adds fat and savoury depth that carries through the broth.
Cabbage
Provides bulk and a mild, sweet vegetable flavour as it softens.
Potatoes
Break down slightly during simmering, giving the broth body and thickness.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Foam rising at the start of boiling contains coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the broth and taint its flavour, so skimming it off gives a clearer, cleaner soup.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, liver, cabbage, carrot, leek, potato, onion):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, liver, cabbage, carrot, leek, potato, onion. 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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