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Delicate Cabbage

A boiled cabbage dish seasoned with butter and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Delicate Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all defective leaves from the cabbage, then quarter and cut it as for coarse slaw.

  2. Cover the cabbage with cold water and let it soak for several hours.

  3. Drain the cabbage and place it in a pot with enough boiling water to cover it.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil the cabbage for about 45 minutes, adding salt 10-15 minutes before it is done.

  2. Once cooked, drain the cabbage in a colander and press out the excess water.

  3. Season the cabbage with butter and pepper 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. 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish, and its texture softens as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness that coats the cooked cabbage.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the cooking water so the cabbage tastes seasoned throughout.

The step that matters

Pressing out the excess water after boiling. Cabbage holds a lot of water, and leftover moisture dilutes the butter and seasoning and makes the cabbage taste watery. Draining well and pressing helps it keep its flavor.

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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