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Cabbage, to Boil

A boiled cabbage dish seasoned with salt, baking soda, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Quarter the cabbage at the stalk and wash it thoroughly.

Cook

  1. Boil in a large pot of salted spring water with baking soda.

  2. Cook until tender, then strain in a colander and press gently.

Serve

  1. Cut the cabbage in halves and serve.

  2. If there are leftovers, chop the cabbage, heat in a saucepan with butter, and season with pepper and salt 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.

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

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

  3. 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
Main vegetable that softens into a tender texture when boiled.
Baking soda
Raises the water's alkalinity, which helps the cabbage soften faster and keep a brighter green colour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel when the leftovers are reheated.

The step that matters

Cook until tender, then drain well. Overcooking breaks down cabbage cell walls and releases sulfur compounds, making it mushy and strong-smelling. Pressing out excess water after straining keeps it from tasting watery.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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