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Cabbage Soup

A hearty soup made with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions, pork, bacon, and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil.

  2. Add 1½ pounds of bacon and ½ pound of pork sausages; skim off any foam.

  3. Add the cabbage, potatoes, carrot, onions, and parsnip.

  4. Simmer for 2 hours until everything is cooked.

Serve

  1. Remove the bacon and sausages; place them on a dish with the cabbage around them.

  2. In a tureen, layer sliced bread soaked in broth and pour enough broth over it for serving.

  3. Reserve any remaining broth for the next day.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Cabbage + parsniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together222 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

Bacon
Renders fat and flavour into the broth, giving the soup its savoury base.
Pork sausages
Add meaty richness and savoury flavour to the broth.
Savoy cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild, sweet vegetable flavour as it cooks down.
Potatoes
Break down slightly during simmering, adding body and thickening the broth.
Sliced bread
Soaks up broth in the tureen, giving the dish a soft, substantial texture.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they soften.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam. Foam rising from the meat contains impurities and proteins that can cloud the broth and taint its flavour if left in. Skimming early keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, carrot, onion, parsnip, bread):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, carrot, onion, parsnip, bread. 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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