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A Red Cabbage Relish

A relish made from sliced red cabbage, onion, vinegar, flour, and butter, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

A Red Cabbage Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Place the sliced cabbage and onion in a stewpan.

  2. Add the vinegar and simmer for 4 to 5 hours, stirring frequently.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, mix in the flour and butter.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 relish and turns mellow and sweet as it cooks slowly.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and sweetness that builds during the long simmer.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps keep the cabbage's red colour bright.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the relish becomes spoonable rather than watery.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished relish.

The step that matters

Simmering for 4 to 5 hours, stirring frequently. Long, gentle simmering softens the cabbage and mellows its sharpness into sweetness. Frequent stirring keeps the bottom from scorching, since sugars darken and turn bitter when they burn.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, vinegar, flour, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, flour, butter. 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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