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Cabbage Soup

A soup made with cabbage, onion, butter, water or stock, milk, parsley, and tapioca.

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. Thoroughly wash the cabbage and cut it into quarters.

  2. Place the cabbage in boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Drain the water and melt the butter in a saucepan.

Simmer the soup

  1. Add the cabbage, chopped parsley, and sliced onion to the saucepan.

  2. Pour in the boiling water or stock, cover, and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, then add the milk.

  2. Bring to a boil, sprinkle in the crushed tapioca, and continue stirring.

  3. Boil for 12 minutes and serve with small pieces of fried bread on the side.

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 main body of the soup and, once sieved, gives it a smooth, thick texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour from the onion and parsley.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the vegetable flavour.
Crushed tapioca
Thickens the soup as its starch gelatinises during boiling.

The step that matters

Sprinkling in the tapioca. Tapioca must be added to a boiling liquid and stirred continuously, or it clumps and stays grainy. Its starch swells and thickens only once it reaches a boil, so the soup needs the full boiling time to clear and set smoothly.

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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