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To Stew Red Cabbage

A stew of red cabbage, onions, ham, and vinegar, seasoned with pepper and salt, finished with stock or brown sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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To Stew Red Cabbage

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

To Stew Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and quarter the cabbage, removing the stalk.

  2. Cut the cabbage into fine pieces.

Stew

  1. In a stewpan, place the onions (one stuffed with cloves), ham, and vinegar.

  2. Cover and stew over low heat for several hours.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Add stock or brown sauce and heat through.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together933 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Forms the body of the stew and gives it its colour and mild flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the cabbage keep its red colour.
Ham
Contributes savoury, salty flavour to the stewing liquid.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften during the long stew.
Stock or brown sauce
Adds moisture and savoury body to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Cover and stew over low heat for several hours. Slow, gentle heat softens the tough cabbage fibres and lets flavours blend. Too much heat can scorch the bottom of the pan and make the stew bitter.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, ham, vinegar, pepper, sauce. 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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