Name: Fine Pickled Cabbage
Ingredients: red cabbage; white cabbage; salt; 2 tablespoons whole black pepper; 2 tablespoons allspice; 2 tablespoons cloves; 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Fine Pickled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Shred the red and white cabbage.
Spread the cabbage in layers in a stone jar, sprinkling salt over each layer.
Place the whole black pepper, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon in a bag.

Pickle

Scald the spice bag and add it to the jar with the cabbage.
Cover the jar and let it sit until pickled.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage: Forms the bulk of the pickle and gives it its color and crisp texture.
White cabbage: Adds bulk and a mild crunch to the pickled mass.
Salt: Draws water out of the cabbage and helps keep the pickle firm and preserved.
Whole black pepper: Adds warm, sharp spice aroma to the pickling liquid.
Allspice: Adds warm, sweet-spiced aroma that flavors the cabbage as it sits.
Cloves: Adds strong, warm aroma that perfumes the pickle.
Cinnamon: Adds sweet, woody aroma that rounds out the spice flavor.