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Cabbage Soup

A soup made from shredded cabbage, onion, parsley, milk, and tapioca, simmered with butter, salt, and pepper.

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 ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cover the shredded cabbage with boiling water, bring to a boil, and strain.

Cook the soup

  1. Return the cabbage to the saucepan, add 2 pints of boiling water, milk, onion, parsley, butter, salt, and pepper, and boil gently for 15 minutes.

  2. Sprinkle in the tapioca and cook for about 10 minutes longer, or until the tapioca becomes transparent.

  3. Serve hot.

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

Cabbages
Forms the bulk of the soup and gives it its main body and vegetable flavor.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy body to the broth.
Tapioca or sago
Thickens the soup as its starch gelatinizes during cooking, turning the broth slightly transparent.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Sprinkle in the tapioca and cook until transparent. Tapioca and sago thicken only once their starch absorbs liquid and swells with heat. Adding them too early or stopping too soon leaves the soup thin or grainy, so cook until the grains look clear.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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