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Stewed Cabbage

A dish of cabbage stewed with bacon, shallot, herbs, and a gravy thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Stewed Cabbage

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Stewed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Soak the cabbage in salt water and vinegar for 1 hour.

  2. Cut large heads into quarters and small heads in half.

  3. Blanch the cabbage pieces in boiling water for 5 minutes.

  4. Steam or boil the cabbage in hot water with salt and sugar for 15 minutes.

  5. Drain the cabbage.

Make the stew base

  1. Mince the bacon, shallot, parsley, marjoram, and thyme.

  2. Season the minced mixture with sugar, pepper, and salt.

  3. Melt the bacon in a stew-pan.

  4. Add the cabbage quarters and toss for 1–2 minutes.

  5. Pour enough gravy to half-cover the cabbage and let it simmer until done.

Finish and serve

  1. Lift the cabbage onto a hot dish and cover.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter.

  4. Pour the thickened gravy over the cabbage.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 tender through soaking and simmering.
Bacon
Melted into the pan to add fat and savoury flavour for the stew.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the cabbage.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the thickened gravy.
Gravy
Provides the liquid that braises the cabbage and carries its flavour.

The step that matters

Simmering the cabbage in gravy. Cabbage cooked too long turns soft and watery, while too little simmering leaves it firm. Half-covering the cabbage lets it cook gently while the exposed parts take on flavour from the liquid.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, shallot, parsley, marjoram, thyme, pepper):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, shallot, parsley, marjoram, thyme, 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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