Skip to main content
Main

German Cabbage

Sautéed cabbage with butter, lard, cream, vinegar, sugar, and flour or beaten egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

German Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cabbage using a vegetable cutter.

Cook

  1. In a large skillet, melt the butter and lard over medium heat.

  2. Add the cabbage, salt, pepper, and water to the skillet.

  3. Cook until the cabbage is tender and slightly browned.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the cream, vinegar, sugar, and flour (or beaten egg).

  2. Bring to a boil once, then serve.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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 softens into a tender, slightly browned base.
Butter and lard
Provide fat for browning the cabbage and carrying flavor through the skillet.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow body to the cooking liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and richness of the dish.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the sharpness of the vinegar.
Flour or beaten egg
Thickens the sauce so it clings to the cabbage rather than pooling.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream, vinegar, sugar, and flour (or beaten egg). Adding cream, egg, or flour to a hot acidic liquid can curdle or lump it. Stirring steadily and bringing it to a boil only once keeps the sauce smooth and prevents it from separating or overcooking.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cream, vinegar, sugar, flour. 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.

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes