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Cabbage Au Gratin

A baked cabbage dish layered with bacon, cheese, breadcrumbs, butter, and béchamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Wash, trim, and quarter the cabbage.

  2. Put the cabbage into boiling water, add 1 tablespoon of salt, and boil rapidly until cooked.

  3. Drain well, chop coarsely, and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble

  1. Press the cabbage into a pudding basin.

  2. Place the bacon in a gratin dish or any fire-proof dish.

  3. Invert the basin on top of the bacon and turn out the cabbage.

  4. Cover the surface with the mixed grated cheese and breadcrumbs, and dot with small pieces of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until lightly brown.

  2. Serve the sauce separately.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish and becomes tender when boiled.
Bacon
Adds savoury fat and flavour as it renders into the dish.
White sauce (béchamel)
Adds moisture and a creamy texture to the cabbage.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savoury flavour.
Breadcrumbs
Crisp up in the oven, giving a golden, crunchy topping.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the topping brown evenly.

The step that matters

Draining the cabbage well. Excess water left in the cooked cabbage dilutes the sauce and keeps the topping from browning, and it can make the dish soggy.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, sauce, 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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