Name: To Pickle Red Cabbage
Ingredients: red cabbage; coarse sea salt; whole allspice; cold vinegar

Why it works: Cabbage and allspice work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 443 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

To Pickle Red Cabbage

Ingredients

red cabbage
coarse sea salt
whole allspice
cold vinegar

Directions

Slice the red cabbage into thin pieces.
Sprinkle salt and whole allspice between each layer.
Pour cold vinegar over the cabbage until it is fully covered.
Press the cabbage down lightly; it will be ready to use soon.

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 + allspicetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together443 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).