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To Stew Red Cabbage

A stewed red cabbage cooked with port wine, butter, flour, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

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: 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 ↓

To Stew Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the cabbage well and slice it for pickling.

Stew

  1. Place the cabbage in a stew pan with port wine, butter, flour, salt, and pepper. Stir until the butter melts.

  2. Cover the pan and let it stew until the cabbage is tender but still crisp.

  3. Add vinegar, bring to a boil, 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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 dish and becomes tender while staying slightly crisp as it stews.
Port wine
Adds liquid for stewing and a sweet, rich flavor to the cabbage.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the stewed cabbage.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so it clings to the cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the port and cabbage.

The step that matters

Stewing until tender but still crisp. Cabbage contains compounds that break down with prolonged heat, so it turns soft and gray-tinged if overcooked. Covering the pan and checking early keeps the texture tender but still crisp. Adding vinegar near the end helps the red color stay vivid, since acid keeps the cabbage's anthocyanin pigments red rather than blue or dull.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, butter, flour, pepper, 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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