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To Boil Cabbages, Savoys, Cauliflowers, Headed Broccoli, Etc.

A method of boiling cabbage, savoy, cauliflower, and broccoli in salted water until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,397 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

To Boil Cabbages, Savoys, Cauliflowers, Headed Broccoli, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dress the cabbage and cut it into four parts from the top, keeping them attached to the stalk.

  2. Soak the cabbage in cold water with a little salt for one hour.

Boil

  1. Boil a pot of water with dissolved salt and add the cabbage.

  2. Boil uncovered for 1 to 1.5 hours, adding boiling water as needed and skimming occasionally.

  3. Remove the cabbage and drain in a colander, then rinse with cold water until cool.

  4. Return the cabbage to fresh boiling water and cook for 2 hours or until the stalk is tender.

Serve

  1. Drain again, pressing out excess water, and place in a deep dish.

  2. Add pieces of butter and a little pepper, cover, 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.

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 + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Long simmering softens the dense leaves and stalk until tender.
Butter
Melts over the hot cabbage, adding richness and a silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Draining and pressing out excess water. Cabbage holds a lot of water, and leftover moisture dilutes the butter and pepper and makes the dish watery and bland. Pressing it out after the final boil keeps the flavour concentrated.

“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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