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Red Cabbage, to Stew. No. 3

A stew of sliced red cabbage, ham, butter, broth, vinegar, and sugar, simmered until tender.

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 ↓

Red Cabbage, to Stew. No. 3

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a stew-pan, combine the sliced cabbage, ham, and butter.

  2. Add the broth and vinegar, then cover and let it stew for three hours.

  3. Once tender, add more broth, salt, pepper, and sugar. Mix well and boil until the liquid is mostly evaporated.

Serve

  1. Transfer to a serving dish and top with fried sausages.

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. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Forms the bulk of the stew and softens into tender strands during long, covered stewing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that keeps the cabbage's red color bright and gives a sharp, tangy flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the cabbage braise and carry flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Ham
Contributes salty, savory flavor that seasons the cabbage as it stews.

The step that matters

Boiling off the liquid at the end. Once the cabbage is tender, the liquid must reduce to a concentrated, glossy coating. Boiling too little leaves the stew watery; boiling too long can scorch the sugar and dry the cabbage out.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, vinegar, pepper, sugar. 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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