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Cabbage with Rice

A dish of boiled rice mixed with boiled cabbage, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a small piece of baking soda, topped with dripping.

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 ↓

Cabbage with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly in plenty of water.

  2. Combine the rice and 1½ pints of water in a saucepan.

  3. Boil gently until soft and dry.

Cook the cabbage

  1. Trim the outer leaves of the cabbage and cut the cabbage in half.

  2. Wash the cabbage and place it in a saucepan.

  3. Cover the cabbage with water.

  4. Add a lump of salt and a small piece of baking soda.

  5. Boil until cooked.

  6. Drain the cabbage in a colander.

Combine and serve

  1. Mash the rice and cabbage together.

  2. Mix in a lump of dripping.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a hot dish.

  5. Shape it into a dome and smooth the top with a knife.

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

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

  2. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  3. Rice + cabbagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together361 recipes

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

  4. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs water as it cooks, becoming soft and forming the bulk of the dish.
Cabbage
Provides the main vegetable body and moisture that binds with the mashed rice.
Baking soda
Raises the cabbage's pH, helping it soften and keeping its green colour during boiling.
Dripping
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more cohesive texture when mixed in.

The step that matters

Boil gently until soft and dry. Rice cooked too vigorously can break and turn gluey, while cooking it until the water is absorbed prevents a wet, heavy result that will not hold its shape when shaped into a dome.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, 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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