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Stewed Red Cabbage

A simple stew of sliced red cabbage, onion, butter, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Stewed Red Cabbage

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 ↓

Stewed Red Cabbage

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage and wash it well.

  2. Slice the cabbage thinly and place it in a pot of boiling water.

  3. Add a little salt and boil until half cooked.

  4. Drain the water completely, leaving the cabbage as dry as possible.

Stew and serve

  1. In a pan, combine the cabbage, sliced onion, butter, and ½ cup boiling water.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and let it stew gently until the cabbage is soft.

  3. Stir in the vinegar before serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Forms the main body of the dish and softens into a tender, stewed texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and helping the cabbage feel silky.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps the cabbage keep its red color.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens into the stew.

The step that matters

Drain the cabbage as dry as possible. Excess water dilutes the stewing liquid and makes the cabbage soggy and bland. Removing it lets the cabbage braise in its own flavor and absorb the butter and seasoning.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, 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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