Why it works: Cabbage and grape work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 89 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Scientific Sauerkraut Making
Ingredients
Directions
Pile cabbage heads in high, pointed heaps and cover with sacks or straw to bleach them.
Remove outer leaves and cores using a borer or spiral core cutter.
Cut the cabbage into fine threads using a kraut chopper or cutting machine.
Line the bottom of a fermenting vat with grape leaves.
Layer the cut cabbage in the vat, alternating with layers of coarse sea salt and juniper berries if desired.
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.
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Cabbage + grapetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together89 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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