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Raw Pickle

A pickled vegetable mixture of cabbage, onions, and cucumbers, seasoned with salt, vinegar, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Raw Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince equal parts of cabbage, onions, and ripe cucumbers together.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight.

Pack and serve

  1. In the morning, drain the mixture.

  2. Put the mixture into jars and cover with cold vinegar and a little pepper.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together722 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  5. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides the bulk and crisp texture of the pickle.
Ripe cucumbers
Adds moisture and a fresh, mild flavor to the mixture.
Onions
Adds sharp aroma and savory flavor to the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables, softening them and concentrating flavor.
Cold vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its tang.

The step that matters

Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and let stand overnight. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis. Draining the mixture afterward removes that liquid, so the pickle stays crisp rather than watery once covered with vinegar.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Radishfits better
  2. Cauliflowerfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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