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Stewed Red Cabbage

A dish of sliced red cabbage cooked with onion, butter, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Stewed Red Cabbage

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 ↓

Stewed Red Cabbage

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage and wash it well.

  2. Slice the cabbage thinly and place it in a pan of boiling water with a little salt.

  3. When half boiled, drain the water completely, leaving the cabbage as dry as possible.

Stew and finish

  1. Add ½ cup of boiling water, the sliced onion, and butter to the cabbage.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, and let it stew gently until the cabbage is soft.

  3. Stir in the vinegar before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 dish and softens into tender, sweet strands as it stews.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving a smoother mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps the cabbage keep its red colour.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it stews, adding aroma and depth to the cabbage.

The step that matters

Drain the cabbage as dry as possible. Excess water left from boiling dilutes the flavour and makes the stew watery, so draining thoroughly lets the butter and seasoning concentrate in the cabbage.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, butter, vinegar, 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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