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Quickly-made Cabbage Soup

A quick cabbage soup made with shredded cabbage, onion, butter, milk, tapioca, and boiled water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Quickly-made Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Wash the cabbage well in salt and water, then shred it finely.

  2. Plunge the shredded cabbage into a saucepan of boiling water and boil for 3-4 minutes.

  3. Strain the cabbage well.

Make the soup

  1. Peel and chop the onion, then add it to the saucepan with the cabbage and butter.

  2. Toss the mixture occasionally to absorb the butter without browning.

  3. Pour in the boiling water, add the salt and pepper, and boil for 10 minutes.

  4. Stir in the milk and tapioca, then boil slowly for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve

  1. Place the chopped parsley in a tureen or bowl and pour the soup over it.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Cabbage + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together660 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the soup and provides its main body and mild flavour when softened.
Tapioca or sago
Thickens the soup as its starch gelatinises during simmering, giving it body.
Skim milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the soup while it simmers.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the softened cabbage and onion.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the butter.

The step that matters

Toss the mixture without browning. Tossing the cabbage and onion in butter over gentle heat coats them evenly and softens them. Browning would add roasted, bitter notes that clash with the delicate, mild flavour of this soup.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, milk, butter, parsley, 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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