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Cabbage Soup

A mild soup made with shredded cabbage, onion, butter, milk, wheatmeal, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and shred the cabbage finely.

  2. Chop the onion and add it with the shredded cabbage, 1 quart of water, butter, and seasonings to a saucepan.

Cook

  1. Cook gently for 1 hour or until the vegetables are tender.

  2. Add the milk and wheatmeal, then simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with small squares of toasted or fried bread.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

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

Cabbage
Forms the main body of the soup and softens into tender strands during gentle cooking.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the butter and water.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour from the seasonings and vegetables.
Milk
Makes the soup creamier and rounds out its flavour.
Fine wheatmeal
Thickens the soup slightly as it simmers with the milk.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after adding the milk. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard. Gentle heat keeps the soup smooth and thickened by the wheatmeal.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, pepper, nutmeg, 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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