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Cabbage Pickle

A fermented cabbage preserved in vinegar, sugar, onion, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,001 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cabbage Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Quarter the cabbage and split each quarter.

  2. Place the cabbage pieces in a wooden tray and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let the cabbage sit for 24 hours, then drain off the salt.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack the drained cabbage in a jar, layering with sugar, chopped onion, and spices.

  2. Boil the vinegar until hot and pour it over the cabbage to cover.

  3. Seal the jar tightly.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulky body of the pickle that absorbs the brine.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and concentrating its flavor before packing.
Sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness and softens the sourness.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its tang.
Onion
Adds sharp, savory aroma that mellows during pickling.

The step that matters

Draining the salted cabbage. Salt draws water out of the cabbage over 24 hours. If the salt is not fully drained off before packing, the pickle will be overly salty, and the cabbage must be well drained so the vinegar is not diluted.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, sugar, vinegar. 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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