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Cabbage Soup

A simple soup made with cabbage, butter, milk, and bread.

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 ↓

Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Put 3 pints of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Wash the cabbage in cold water and trim off the outer leaves.

  3. Cut the cabbage into pieces, similar to how you would for a salad.

Make the soup

  1. Once the water is boiling, add the cabbage.

  2. Add 2 ounces of butter, pepper, and salt, and let it boil for 1 hour.

  3. Pour in 3/4 pint of milk and bring to a boil again.

Serve

  1. Toast the slice of bread on both sides in front of the fire.

  2. Cut the toasted bread into dice-sized pieces and place them in a hot soup tureen.

  3. Pour the cabbage soup over the bread and 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 soup and becomes tender as it simmers, giving body and flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the broth.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the soup's flavor.
Bread
Soaks up the broth and adds a toasted texture and body when served.

The step that matters

Boiling the cabbage for 1 hour. Cabbage holds sulfur compounds that become strong and unpleasant with long cooking, so keep the boil steady rather than vigorous and do not let it cook longer than the method says.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, bread. 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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