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Pickled Cabbage

A cabbage dish preserved in vinegar, salt, spices, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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

  1. Chop the cabbage or shave it into ribbons.

Layer and pickle

  1. Combine the cabbage, chopped onions, and chopped red pepper in an earthen crock in alternate layers with salt, black pepper, and mustard seed.

  2. Press down with a potato masher to compact the mixture without bruising the cabbage.

  3. Tie the spices in a piece of cheesecloth and place on top of the cabbage mixture.

  4. Place a heavy plate on top and pour the cider vinegar over everything.

  5. Cover the jar and set it in a cool place.

  6. The pickled cabbage will be ready in a few days and can be stored for months in cool weather.

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. 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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  5. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the crisp bulk of the pickle and absorbs the vinegar brine.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickled cabbage.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, helping it soften and season evenly.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during pickling.
Onions
Contribute savoury sweetness and aroma to the layered mixture.

The step that matters

Press down with a potato masher. Compacting the mixture without bruising the cabbage keeps it crisp, since crushed cells release more water and soften the texture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

More pickled cabbage recipes

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