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Turnip-oabbage, Smothered and Glazed

A dish of turnip cabbages stuffed with a mushroom, pork, and sauce mixture, then baked until glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 202 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Turnip-oabbage, Smothered and Glazed

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the cabbages

  1. Peel the turnip cabbages and parboil them until half cooked.

  2. Immerse the parboiled cabbages in cold water and drain on a napkin.

  3. Cut out the center of each cabbage with a round cutter without breaking them.

Make the filling

  1. Line a deep flat saucepan with thin slices of fat pork.

  2. In another saucepan, combine chopped mushrooms and shallot with butter. Cover and cook until moisture is reduced.

  3. Finely chop the scooped-out cabbage and add it to the mushrooms. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Add 4 tablespoons of reduced Allemande sauce. Mix in the egg yolks.

  5. Transfer the mixture to an earthen bowl and let it cool. Add the chicken forcemeat to the cooled mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the centers of the cabbages with the mixture.

  2. Moisten lightly with veal broth. Cover the pan.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) until nicely glazed.

  4. Serve with a reduced Allemande sauce flavored with essence of mushrooms.

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. Turnip + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Turnip-cabbages
Form the edible shell that holds the filling while it bakes.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set into a tender, sliceable mass.
Chicken forcemeat
Adds a fine, smooth body and richness to the stuffing.
Allemande sauce
Adds a creamy, velvety moisture and savoury richness to the filling.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy aroma and savoury depth to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before adding the chicken forcemeat. Raw egg yolks in a warm mixture can scramble or thin the forcemeat, so cooling first keeps the filling smooth and lets it bind evenly.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, pork, mushroom, shallot, butter, pepper, nutmeg. 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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