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Boiled Cabbage

A boiled cabbage dish cooked with bacon or salt pork, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Boiled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the cabbage heads.

  2. Cut them into quarters, removing the stalks.

Cook

  1. Place the cabbage in a saucepan with boiling water.

  2. Add the parboiled bacon or salt pork.

  3. Cook until the cabbage is tender, then drain in a colander.

Season and serve

  1. Season the cabbage with salt and pepper.

  2. Serve with the trimmed bacon or pork.

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. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Cabbage + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together919 recipes

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

  4. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes soft and tender as it cooks.
Bacon or salt pork
Adds savory fat and salty flavor to the boiling water and cabbage.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when used optionally.

The step that matters

Cook until the cabbage is tender, then drain. Overcooking breaks down cabbage cell walls and releases sulfur compounds, producing a mushy texture and strong smell. Draining well keeps excess water from diluting the flavor.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, 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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