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Cabbage with Vinegar

A boiled cabbage dish flavored with pickled onions, gherkins, capers, vinegar, butter, and browned flour.

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 with Vinegar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the heart from the cabbage and boil it in two waters until three parts done.

  2. Shred the cabbage and place it in a stewpan.

Cook and finish

  1. Chop the pickled onions, gherkins, and capers, and add them to the cabbage.

  2. Pour in the vinegar and cook for about 20 minutes.

  3. Thicken the mixture with browned flour and boil for a few more minutes.

  4. Add the butter, salt, and black pepper.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Capers + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Cabbage + caperstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 gives it its main texture and body.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the butter and flour.
Browned flour
Thickens the liquid so it clings to the cabbage, and adds a toasted flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Pickled onions
Contribute sharp, tangy flavour and a little crunch.

The step that matters

Thickening with browned flour. Flour must be added to simmering liquid and stirred well, then boiled a few minutes, so starch swells and thickens evenly without lumps or a raw floury taste.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, capers, vinegar, butter, pepper, 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.

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