Name: Pickled Cabbage
Ingredients: solid heads of cabbage; water; vinegar; sugar; salt

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 Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Slice the cabbage very finely.
Pack the sliced cabbage into a jar.
In a separate pot, combine water, vinegar, sugar, and salt.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Pour the hot mixture over the cabbage in the jar.
Seal the jar and let it cool before refrigerating.

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).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,037 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).