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Stewed Cabbage

A cabbage dish cooked in butter, flour, and cream or gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Stewed Cabbage

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 ↓

Stewed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the stalk from the cabbage and slice it into very thin strips.

  2. Wash and drain the cabbage strips, then add them to a large pan of boiling salted water.

  3. Cook until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes, then drain in a sieve or strainer.

  4. Chop the cabbage slightly and set aside.

Stew the cabbage

  1. In a clean saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the cabbage, seasoning with salt and pepper, and stir until it appears dry.

  3. Sprinkle in the flour and mix well.

  4. Gradually add the thick cream (or veal gravy or white sauce), stirring continuously.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cabbage + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together978 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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 becomes tender when boiled and then stewed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the stewed cabbage.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cabbage mixture so the liquid binds rather than running off.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, turning the cabbage into a creamy, saucy stew.

The step that matters

Gradually add the cream while stirring continuously. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, preventing lumps and helping the sauce thicken smoothly rather than clumping.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, flour, cream. 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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