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Cabbage Pickle

A pickled cabbage preserved in a mixture of hot brine, vinegar, cinnamon bark, cloves, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Cabbage Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Quarter the cabbage to fill a 2‑gallon jar.

  2. Pour hot brine over the cabbage and let it sit for 4 days.

  3. Squeeze the cabbage to remove excess brine.

Pickle and finish

  1. Pour weak vinegar over the cabbage and let it sit for several days.

  2. In a separate container, mix strong vinegar with cinnamon bark, essence of cloves, and turmeric. Pour this mixture over the cabbage and tie the jar closed.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cabbage + turmerictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together618 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cabbage + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together336 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 gives it a crisp, firm texture.
Hot brine
Salts and softens the cabbage while drawing out moisture.
Weak vinegar
Adds acidity that begins preserving and sharpening the cabbage.
Strong vinegar
Provides the main acidity and preserving power of the final pickle.
Cinnamon bark
Adds warm, sweet aroma and spice flavour to the pickle.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle a yellow colour and earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Squeezing the cabbage after the brine. Removing excess brine keeps the cabbage from diluting the vinegar added later, so the acidity and flavour of the final pickle stay balanced.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cinnamon, clove, 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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