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Yellow Pickle Cabbage

A pickled cabbage preserved with turmeric, spices, and vinegar, sun‑dried and then fermented.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Yellow Pickle Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Scald the cabbage in saltwater until tender.

  2. Drain the cabbage.

  3. Place the cabbage in the sun for several days, covered with salt on an old tablecloth.

  4. Immerse the cabbage in turmeric vinegar for one week.

  5. Squeeze the cabbage well.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Prepare the vinegar mixture by combining all spices in a bag.

  2. In a large pot, mix 1½ gallons of vinegar with 2 lbs of sugar, nutmeg, turmeric, allspice, mace, pepper, ginger, mustard seed, cloves, horseradish, garlic, lemons, red pepper, and celery seed.

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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Turmeric + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turmeric + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Turmeric + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 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 bulk of the pickle and becomes tender and crisp-soft as it cures.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and a mild earthy flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp flavour that develops as the pickle matures.

The step that matters

Squeeze the cabbage well. Excess water left in the cabbage dilutes the vinegar brine and can make the pickle soft and weaken its preservation, so the cabbage should be pressed dry before it is combined with the spiced vinegar.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, turmeric, vinegar, sugar, nutmeg, allspice, 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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