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Boiled Cabbage

A cabbage roll stuffed with seasoned meat, bound with egg and breadcrumbs, boiled and served with melted butter.

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 ↓

Boiled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the green leaves from the cabbage and wash it well.

  2. Soak the cabbage in cold water until ready to use.

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

  4. Scald the cabbage until the leaves wilt.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the center finely.

  2. Mix the chopped center with any scraps of cold meat or poultry.

  3. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and onion if desired.

  4. Bind the mixture with a raw egg and add a few bread crumbs.

  5. Form the mixture into a large ball.

Roll and cook

  1. Place the ball in the center of the wilted leaves.

  2. Fold the leaves over carefully.

  3. Wrap the leaves with thread.

  4. Cover the wrapped cabbage with a thin piece of muslin and tie it securely.

  5. Boil until the cabbage is tender.

  6. Drain the cabbage and remove the cloth and strings.

  7. Serve hot 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 wilted leaves form the wrapper that holds the filling together during cooking.
Raw egg
Binds the chopped filling so it holds its shape when boiled.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the filling hold together.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat to the finished cabbage at serving.

The step that matters

Scald the cabbage until the leaves wilt. Leaves that are too stiff tear when folded, while over-softened leaves break apart. Wilting makes them pliable enough to wrap the filling without cracking.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, 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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