Name: Pickled Red Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 head of red cabbage, chopped fine; 2 handfuls of coarse sea salt; water, enough to cover the cabbage; scalded vinegar

Why it works: Cabbage and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pickled Red Cabbage

Ingredients

1 head of red cabbage, chopped fine
2 handfuls of coarse sea salt
water, enough to cover the cabbage
scalded vinegar

Directions

Salt the cabbage

Combine the chopped cabbage with salt and enough water to cover it.
Let it sit overnight.
In the morning, drain the water from the cabbage.

Pickle

Pack the cabbage into a stone jar and cover it with scalded vinegar.

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 + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 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

Red cabbage: Forms the bulk of the pickle and provides its crisp texture and colour.
Coarse sea salt: Draws water out of the cabbage and seasons it during the overnight rest.
Vinegar: Provides the acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, sour flavour.

“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.