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Stewed Cabbage

A simple cabbage dish cooked in butter after boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Stewed 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 Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut out the stalk of the cabbage and slice it into very thin strips.

  2. Wash and drain the cabbage strips.

Cook

  1. Boil a large pot of salted water and add the cabbage.

  2. Cook until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Drain the cabbage in a sieve and press out excess water.

Finish in butter

  1. In a clean saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the cabbage to the melted butter, season with salt and pepper, and stir over medium heat until dry.

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. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbages
Forms the bulk of the dish and, once cooked, becomes soft and tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the cabbage coat and gloss.

The step that matters

Pressing out the excess water. Cabbage holds a lot of water after boiling. If it is not pressed and drained well, the excess moisture dilutes the butter and keeps the cabbage wet, so it stews rather than turning dry and glossy in the pan.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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