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Jellied Cabbage

A chilled cabbage dish set in gelatin with peppers, sugar, vinegar, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Jellied Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatine base

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water.

  2. Dissolve the soaked gelatine in boiling water.

Combine and set

  1. When cool, add chopped cabbage, green peppers, salt, sugar, vinegar, and lemon juice.

  2. Mix thoroughly and pour into molds to harden.

Serve

  1. Serve on lettuce leaves with a spoonful of mayonnaise on top.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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

Gelatine
Sets the dissolved liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly that holds the vegetables in place.
Cabbage
Provides the bulk and crisp texture of the jelly.
Green peppers
Add crunch and a fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and lemon juice.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the jelly.
Lemon juice
Adds further acidity and fresh citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Let the gelatine mixture cool before adding the vegetables. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so if the liquid is still hot the vegetables may sink or the mixture may not hold its shape. Waiting until it is cool but still liquid lets the pieces stay evenly suspended as it sets.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, vinegar, lemon):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, vinegar, lemon. 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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