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Red Cabbage

A slow‑cooked stew of sliced red cabbage, onion, and beef fat, finished with vinegar, stock, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cabbage into thin layers and remove the outer leaves.

  2. Soak the cabbage in cold water, then drain.

  3. Slice the onion thinly and mix it with the cabbage.

Cook

  1. Melt the beef dripping in a stewpan, then add the cabbage and onion.

  2. Cook slowly for 4 to 5 hours until the cabbage absorbs the fat.

  3. Mix vinegar with stock and pour it into the stewpan.

  4. Dredge in a little flour and simmer until the cabbage nearly absorbs the gravy.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

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

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 stew and softens into tender strands as it cooks slowly.
Beef dripping
Supplies fat that coats the cabbage and carries flavour during the long slow cook.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the red cabbage keep its colour.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy that clings to the cabbage.
Stock
Provides the liquid that becomes the gravy and adds savoury depth.

The step that matters

Slow cooking of the cabbage in fat. Cooking slowly for hours lets the cabbage soften and absorb the fat gradually. Rushing it with high heat can scorch the fat and leave the cabbage tough.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, beef, pepper, vinegar, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, beef, pepper, vinegar, flour. 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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