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Picklto Red Cabbage

A pickled red cabbage preserved in vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,890 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Picklto Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into threads and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  2. Mix well and let stand for 24 hours with a weight on top.

  3. Squeeze out excess liquid.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Boil the spices in 1 quart of vinegar and let cool.

Pickle and serve

  1. Place the cabbage in a stone crock and pour the vinegar and spices over it.

  2. Cover airtight and let sit for 8 days before using.

  3. Serve with hot or cold meats.

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. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,187 recipes

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

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage (in the method)
Forms the main body of the pickle, becoming crisp-tender as it cures in the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
Salt
Draws out excess water from the cabbage, firming its texture before pickling.
Chili peppers
Add heat and pungency to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Squeezing out excess liquid. Salted cabbage releases a lot of water. If it is not squeezed well, the extra moisture dilutes the vinegar and can make the pickle watery and less sharply flavoured.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, cinnamon. 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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