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To Stew Red Cabbage

A stew of red cabbage cooked with wine, butter, flour, salt, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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To Stew Red Cabbage

Why it works: Red wine and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 575 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

To Stew Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Combine the red cabbage, red wine, butter, flour, salt, and spices in a stew pan.

  2. Stir until the butter melts, then cover the pan.

  3. Let it stew until slightly crisp, not too soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, add vinegar and mix well.

  2. Dish and serve hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Red wine + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Cabbage + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together978 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Red cabbage
Forms the bulk of the stew and gives it its texture and colour.
Red wine
Adds liquid and flavour as the cabbage stews.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the flour cook into a smooth base.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the stew holds together.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the cabbage and wine.

The step that matters

Stewing until slightly crisp, not too soft. Cabbage keeps its texture only if it is cooked gently for a short time. Overcooking breaks down its cell walls, so it turns mushy and loses its bright colour, which is why the stew should be checked and removed while still firm.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, butter, flour, vinegar. 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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