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Ladies' Cabbage

A baked cabbage casserole with eggs, butter, and cream.

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 ↓

Ladies' Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Boil the cabbage in water for 15 minutes.

  2. Change the water and boil again until tender.

  3. Drain the cabbage and let it cool.

  4. Chop the cabbage finely.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped cabbage with the beaten eggs, butter, cream, salt, and pepper.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  3. Bake until brown and serve hot.

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 casserole and gives it its main texture and body.
Eggs
Bind the chopped cabbage together and set when baked to hold the casserole's shape.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard-like mixture soft as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Boil the cabbage until tender, then drain and cool it. Cabbage that is still firm or holds too much water will make the casserole watery and loose. Cooking it through and draining well lets the eggs and cream set into a firm, sliceable dish.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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