Skip to main content
Main

To Pickle Red Cabbage

A pickled red cabbage prepared with vinegar, spices, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the outer leaves and hard core from the cabbage.

  2. Slice the cabbage into thin pieces and layer them in a bowl, sprinkling salt between layers.

  3. After 24 hours, drain the cabbage using a sieve.

  4. Wipe the cabbage with a cloth and place it in a glass jar.

Pickle

  1. Mix the spices and sprinkle them over the cabbage as you fill the jar.

  2. Pour in enough vinegar to cover the cabbage.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together545 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Forms the crisp, crunchy body of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening its texture and seasoning it.
Pickling vinegar
Acidifies the cabbage, preserving it and sharpening its flavour.
Whole jamaica pepper
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour as the pickle steeps.
Cloves
Contributes strong, warm aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Layering the salt and draining after 24 hours. Salt draws water out of the cabbage through osmosis. Enough salt and time firm the leaves and limit spoilage; draining removes excess liquid so the vinegar is not diluted.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, clove, ginger):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, clove, ginger. 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.

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes