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Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage rolls are made by filling cabbage leaves with a mixture of cooked meat, rice, herbs, and ketchup, then simmering.

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 ↓

Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Select a small head of cabbage, trim, rinse, and remove the required number of leaves, allowing one large leaf or two small ones for each roll.

  2. Place the leaves in a saucepan, cover with boiling water, add salt, and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly.

Fill and roll

  1. Meanwhile, mix the cooked meat, rice, herbs, tomato ketchup, salt, and pepper, seasoning to taste.

  2. Put a rounded tablespoonful of the filling on each leaf (or two arranged together), roll in the sides, then the ends, enclosing the filling securely, and tie with soft twine.

  3. Place the rolls in the reserved water and simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the rolls, take off the strings, and place them on a warmed dish.

  2. Pour over Drawn Butter Sauce, Tomato Sauce, or Cream Sauce.

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. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  5. Rice + cabbagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together361 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat
Provides the main savoury filling and bulk inside each roll.
Boiled rice
Absorbs moisture and adds body, helping the filling hold together.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness, acidity and colour to the filling.
Cabbage leaves
Act as the edible wrapper that encloses the filling while it simmers.

The step that matters

Enclosing the filling securely. If the leaf is rolled loosely or torn, filling can escape during simmering. Tight, even rolling with the ends tucked in keeps the filling contained and cooked through.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, rice, tomato, ketchup, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rice, tomato, ketchup, 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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