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Cabbage Soup

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Wash the cabbage and remove the outer leaves.

  2. Finely shred the center and cut into short lengths.

  3. Place the shredded cabbage in a saucepan and cover with water. 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 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the body of the soup and gives it its main vegetable flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the cooked vegetables.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, mellow sweetness to the broth.
Tapioca
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells with heat, giving the soup body.

The step that matters

Cook the cabbage without browning. Browning the butter and vegetables adds bitter, toasted flavors and darkens the soup. Keeping the heat gentle lets the cabbage soften and sweeten while the soup stays pale and mild.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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