Name: Pickled Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 gallon chopped cabbage; 1 large onion, chopped (optional); 2 red peppers, cut into small strips; 2 green peppers, cut into small strips; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; Mustard seeds; Whole cloves; Pepper; Cider vinegar

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a large bowl, combine chopped cabbage, onion (if using), and peppers.
Layer the mixture in a stone jar, sprinkling 1 teaspoon of salt between layers.
Cover and let sit overnight.

Pickle

The next day, drain the cabbage in a colander, pressing lightly.
Layer the cabbage back into the jar, adding mustard seeds and cloves between layers.
Do not pack tightly. Cover with cider vinegar until it sinks to the bottom.
Ensure the cabbage is thoroughly moistened with vinegar. It is ready to use immediately and will keep for 7-8 days.

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.

Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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, once salted and soaked, gives the pickle its crisp texture.
Cider vinegar: Provides the acidity that makes the cabbage tangy and helps preserve it.
Coarse sea salt: Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and seasoning the mixture.
Red and green peppers: Add sweetness, color and crunch to the pickled mixture.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, mustard, clove, cider, vinegar):

Horseradishfits better
Radishfits better
Broccolifits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, mustard, clove, cider, vinegar. 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.