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Cabbage Catsup

A pickled cabbage with mustard seed, spices, onions, green pepper, cucumbers, and brown sugar, preserved in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cabbage Catsup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Sprinkle chopped cabbage with salt and drain in a bag overnight.

Mix and store

  1. In a large bowl, combine drained cabbage with mustard seed, prepared mustard, cinnamon, allspice, mace, celery seed, black pepper, turmeric, onions, green pepper, cucumbers, and brown sugar.

  2. Add vinegar gradually until the mixture is well combined.

  3. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 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
Provides the bulk of the relish and, after salting, a crisp texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage so it drains and stays crisp.
White mustard seed
Adds pungency and a sharp, seeded bite to the relish.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar's acidity.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the mixture.
Ground turmeric
Gives the relish its yellow colour and an earthy, bitter aroma.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the cabbage overnight. Salt draws out water from the cabbage; if it is not drained well, excess moisture dilutes the vinegar and makes the relish watery and less crisp.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, mustard, cinnamon, allspice, celery, pepper, turmeric):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, mustard, cinnamon, allspice, celery, pepper, turmeric. 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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