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Red Cabbage

A pickled cabbage dish flavored with salt, vinegar, pepper, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Red Cabbage

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 ↓

Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove any straggling or soiled leaves from the cabbage.

  2. Cut the cabbage into very narrow slices.

  3. Sprinkle the slices well with coarse sea salt.

  4. Let them sit for 48 hours.

  5. Drain off the liquid that forms.

Pickle and seal

  1. Pour boiling hot vinegar over the cabbage, seasoned with black pepper and ginger.

  2. Cover the jars until the cabbage is cold.

  3. Cork the jars.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the main body of the pickle, becoming tender yet crisp as it cures.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage slices, softening them and concentrating their flavour.
Boiling hot vinegar
Acidity that preserves the cabbage and sets its sharp, pickled character.
Black pepper
Adds a mild, sharp aroma to the vinegar brine.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Sprinkling the salt and resting for 48 hours. Salt must coat the slices evenly, since it draws out moisture that is later drained. Uneven salting leaves some pieces soggy and others too dry, and the full rest time is needed for the cabbage to soften properly.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, 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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