Why it works: Cabbage and cream work together. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 778 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Sauerkraut
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Shred the cabbages thoroughly.
Place them in a wooden tub with water, salt, and cream of tartar.
Ferment
Mix well and cover tightly, placing a weight on top.
Keep in a moderately warm place for about 3 weeks to ferment.
Cook and serve
After fermentation, cook gently for several hours.
Serve with slices of boiled bacon or sausages.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Cabbage + creamtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together778 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage
- Provides the bulk and the natural sugars that fermenting microbes convert into sourness.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cabbage and holds back spoilage microbes while fermentation proceeds.
The step that matters
Mix well, cover tightly, and weight the cabbage. The shredded cabbage must stay submerged in its own brine. Exposed pieces can grow mold or spoil, while the salty, oxygen-free environment favours the lactic acid bacteria that make sauerkraut sour.
“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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