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Creamed Cabbage

Creamed cabbage is a dish of boiled cabbage simmered with cream, butter, sugar, milk, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Creamed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Slice the cabbage as for coleslaw.

  2. Cook the sliced cabbage in boiling salted water for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the cabbage.

  4. Alternatively, cook the cabbage in salted boiling water, covered, for 15 minutes.

  5. Pour off the water.

  6. Add hot milk.

Finish in the sauce

  1. Place the cabbage in a saucepan with the cream, butter, sugar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Let it simmer for 3 minutes.

  3. When tender, mix in butter and flour combined with milk.

  4. Season.

  5. Bring to a boil.

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 turns soft and tender when cooked.
Rich cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the sauce and helps it feel smooth.
Flour
Thickens the milk and cream into a creamy sauce that coats the cabbage.

The step that matters

Mix in the butter and flour combined with milk. Flour must be blended smoothly with liquid before it goes in, or it forms lumps. Once stirred into the hot cabbage, it thickens the sauce as it heats, so bring it to a boil to cook out the raw flour taste.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, sugar, pepper, milk, 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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