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Red Cabbage Pickles

Sliced red cabbage is salted, drained for two days, then packed in a jar and covered with hot vinegar to pickle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 27 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Red Cabbage Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Choose purple red cabbage.

  2. Slice the red cabbage into a colander and sprinkle each layer with salt.

  3. Let it drain two days.

Pickle

  1. Put it into a jar and pour hot vinegar over it enough to cover.

  2. Add a few slices of red beet-root.

  3. Cut cauliflower into branches, salt them, and add them; they will look a beautiful red.

  4. Those who like the flavour of spices may boil them with the vinegar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

223Calories
7 gProtein
4 gFat
45 gCarbs

Counts 14 of 16 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 14 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cauliflower1 cup chopped (107g)27
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Celery Seed1 stalk (40g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Seednot in our table0
Horseradishnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Is the main vegetable that is salted, drained and pickled into crisp pieces.
Vinegar
Acts as the pickling liquid that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp acidity.
Salt (in the method)
Draws water out of the cabbage during draining, helping it stay crisp in the jar.
Cauliflower
Adds bulk and crunch, and takes on a red colour from the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the cabbage. Salt draws water out of the cabbage over the two-day drain. If the cabbage is not drained well, extra water dilutes the hot vinegar and leaves the pickles soft and less safe to store.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, mustard, celery, horseradish, cinnamon, sugar, clove):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, celery, horseradish, cinnamon, sugar, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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