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Duck and Red Cabbage

A stew of duck pieces cooked with shredded red cabbage, butter, gravy, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Duck and Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Wash and drain the cabbage.

  2. Shred the cabbage finely.

  3. Heat the butter in a stewpan.

  4. Add the shredded cabbage to the stewpan. Season the cabbage with salt and pepper. Cover the stewpan closely.

  5. Cook gently for 1 hour, adding gravy or stock as needed to prevent burning.

Cook the duck

  1. Divide the ducks into neat joints.

  2. Place the duck joints in a stewpan with just enough hot gravy or stock to barely cover them. Cover the stewpan with a close-fitting lid.

  3. Cook just below simmering point for nearly 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Add the vinegar to the cabbage.

  2. Turn the cabbage onto a hot dish. Arrange the duck on top of the cabbage.

  3. Serve with additional gravy, either poured around or served separately.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes tender through slow, covered cooking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the shredded cabbage cook without sticking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the cabbage keep its colour.
Cold ducks
Provide the main meat, which is gently reheated in gravy until tender.

The step that matters

Keep the duck just below simmering. Gentle heat keeps the meat moist and tender. A rolling boil would toughen the muscle fibres and can dry or break up the joints.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cabbagethe original
  4. Onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, 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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