Name: French Way of Cooking Cabbage
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled white cabbage, chopped; 2 tablespoons melted butter; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ⅓ cup cream; 2 large eggs, well beaten

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 ↓

French Way of Cooking Cabbage

Ingredients

2 cups cold boiled white cabbage, chopped
2 tablespoons melted butter
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
⅓ cup cream
2 large eggs, well beaten

Directions

Prepare

Drain the chopped cabbage until perfectly dry.
Stir in melted butter, salt, pepper, and cream.

Cook and serve

Heat the mixture through, then add the beaten eggs.
Pour the mixture into a buttered frying pan.
Stir until very hot and the bottom is a delicate brown.
Invert a hot dish over the pan and turn it out to 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.

Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set when heated, binding the cabbage and cream into a soft, cohesive mass.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture tender as it heats.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and helps the bottom brown in the pan.
Cabbage: Provides the bulk of the dish and its mild, sweet vegetable flavour.

The step that matters

Drain the chopped cabbage until perfectly dry. Excess water dilutes the cream and eggs and turns the dish soggy instead of creamy, and it can stop the bottom from browning properly.

Swap the cabbage

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

Potatofits better
Spinachfits better
Asparagusfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cream, egg. 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.

Red Cabbage65 recipes

Stewed Cabbage58 recipes

Baked Cabbage51 recipes

Cabbage Dressing19 recipes

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French Way of Cooking Cabbage