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Boiled Cabbage

A boiled cabbage served with a butter, flour, and milk sauce.

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 ↓

Boiled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into pieces, remove the outer leaves and hard core.

  2. Wash the cabbage in two changes of water and drain in a colander.

Boil the cabbage

  1. Boil a large pot of water, add salt and baking soda.

  2. Add the cabbage pieces one at a time to maintain boiling.

  3. Cook uncovered for 25 minutes, pushing the cabbage under water every 5 minutes.

  4. Drain the cabbage in a colander and press out excess water.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter, add flour, salt, and pepper.

  2. Slowly stir in milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the cabbage, cut into large pieces, and mix lightly with the sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cabbage + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together978 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes tender as it cooks in boiling water.
Butter
Provides fat and richness to the sauce and carries flavor.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding creaminess and body.
Baking soda
Raises the water's pH, which helps cabbage soften and keep a brighter color.

The step that matters

Pushing the cabbage under water every 5 minutes. Cabbage pieces float and cook unevenly when exposed to air. Keeping them submerged in boiling water ensures even cooking and prevents pale, unevenly softened patches.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, milk. 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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