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Pickled Cabbage

Pickled cabbage is preserved cabbage sliced and brined in vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove loose leaves from the cabbage.

  2. Slice the cabbage into ½-inch thick slices.

  3. Place the slices in a stone jar.

  4. Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt.

  5. Let it stand for 24 hours.

Make and pour the brine

  1. In a pot, combine the vinegar, mace, peppercorns, and a little mustard seed and scald the mixture.

  2. Drain the cabbage.

  3. Return the drained cabbage to the jar.

  4. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the cabbage.

  5. Repeat the scalding process two or three times.

  6. Cover the jar tightly.

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.

  1. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cabbage + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together415 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Purple cabbage
Forms the main body of the pickle and firms up as it is salted and drained.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, firming its texture before pickling.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp flavour.
Mace
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Black peppercorns
Contribute pungent, aromatic heat to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Salting the cabbage. Salt draws moisture out of the cabbage through osmosis, which firms the slices. Sprinkling it evenly and letting it stand the full time helps the cabbage stay crisp rather than limp once the hot vinegar is added.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, vinegar, mustard):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, mustard. 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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