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Boiled Cabbage

A boiled cabbage stuffed with a meat and breadcrumb mixture, served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Boiled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the green leaves from the cabbage, wash it well, and soak it in cold water until ready to use.

  2. Cut out the center of the cabbage, leaving two or three rows of leaves.

  3. Scald the cabbage until the leaves wilt to prevent breaking.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the center finely and mix with any scraps of cold meat or poultry.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and onion if desired, then bind with a raw egg and add bread crumbs.

  3. Form the mixture into a large ball and place it in the center of the wilted leaves.

Wrap and boil

  1. Fold the leaves over the ball and wrap securely with thread.

  2. Cover with a thin piece of muslin and tie securely, then boil until the cabbage is tender.

  3. Drain, remove the cloth and strings, and serve on a hot dish with melted butter poured over.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Its leaves wrap the filling and turn tender and pliable when boiled.
Raw egg
Binds the chopped filling together so it holds its ball shape while cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the filling and help it hold together.
Cold meat or poultry
Provides the savory, meaty body of the filling.

The step that matters

Scalding the cabbage until the leaves wilt. Leaves that are still stiff crack and tear when folded around the filling. Wilting makes them pliable enough to wrap the ball securely, so the filling stays enclosed while it boils.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, meat, egg, bread, butter):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, meat, egg, bread, butter. 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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