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Cabbage Soup

A soup made with cabbage, butter, water, milk, tapioca, pepper, salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Boil the cold water and add the cut cabbage.

  2. Strain off the water.

  3. Place the cabbage in a saucepan with melted butter.

Make the soup

  1. Stir and add fresh water and milk.

  2. Cook slowly for 15 minutes while stirring.

  3. Add crushed tapioca, pepper, and salt.

  4. Boil for 10 minutes.

  5. Mince parsley.

Serve

  1. Place the minced parsley at the bottom of a soup tureen 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.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cabbage + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together660 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the body of the soup and gives it its vegetable flavour and texture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when the cabbage is first cooked in it.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the broth.
Tapioca
Thickens the soup as its starch swells during simmering.

The step that matters

Adding the crushed tapioca. Tapioca thickens by swelling its starch in hot liquid. Added too early or without enough stirring, it can clump or scorch on the bottom of the pan, so stir well while it simmers.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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