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Cape Cabbage

A stew of cabbage and rice cooked with salt, pepper, dripping, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cape Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the cabbage and cut it up as if for pickling.

Cook

  1. Layer cabbage and rice alternately in a saucepan, adding a little pepper and salt.

  2. Top with a large piece of dripping and pour in the water.

  3. Stew gently until it boils, then place the saucepan by the side of the fire.

  4. When ready to serve, ensure the water is absorbed and the vegetables are tender and moist.

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. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Cabbage + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together361 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and turns tender and sweet during slow stewing.
Rice
Absorbs the cooking water and adds body, helping the dish thicken as it stews.
Dripping
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the slow-cooked vegetables and rice.

The step that matters

Stew gently until it boils, then move the pan aside. Once the water boils, low, gentle heat lets the rice and cabbage soften and absorb the liquid without scorching or drying out.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, 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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