Name: El Salvadoran Pineapple-Pickled Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 small head green cabbage, cored and cut into very thin slices; 1 small red onion, peeled, halved and cut into very thin slices; 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into very thin circles; 1 cup diced fresh pineapple; 1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic; 3/4 cup distilled white vinegar; 1/4 cup pineapple juice; 2 to 4 jalapenos or other fresh chiles of your choice, cut into thin slices; salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Why it works: Cabbage and pineapple share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 32 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

1 small head green cabbage, cored and cut into very thin slices
1 small red onion, peeled, halved and cut into very thin slices
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into very thin circles
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup pineapple juice
2 to 4 jalapenos or other fresh chiles of your choice, cut into thin slices
salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Directions

Mix all together in a bowl and serve.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Cabbage + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together32 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together29,030 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together4,080 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Garlic + jalapenotop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together1,700 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green cabbage: Forms the crisp, bulky base of the salad and holds the pickling liquid.
Distilled white vinegar: Provides the acidity that pickles and sharpens the vegetables.
Fresh pineapple: Adds sweetness and fruity flavor that balances the sharp vinegar.
Red onion: Adds sharp aromatic flavor and some crunch to the mix.
Jalapenos: Add heat and fresh chile flavor to the pickled mixture.

Flavor stand-ins for the jalapeno

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, carrot, pineapple, garlic, vinegar, pepper):

Celerybetter flavor fit
Parsleybetter flavor fit
Gingerbetter flavor fit
Jalapenothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, carrot, pineapple, garlic, vinegar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.