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To Pickle Red Cabbage

A method for pickling red cabbage in cider vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the outer leaves and cut out the stalk of the cabbage.

  2. Quarter the cabbage lengthwise and slice it crosswise.

  3. Place the cabbage in a deep dish, sprinkle with salt, cover with another dish, and let it sit for 24 hours.

  4. Drain the cabbage in a colander and wipe it dry.

Pickle and seal

  1. In a pot, combine cider vinegar and spices, then boil for 5 minutes.

  2. Place the cabbage in a stone jar and pour the boiling vinegar over it.

  3. Cover the jar with a cloth until it cools, then seal with a cork and tie with leather.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Cabbage + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together443 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Red or purple cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and supplies the crisp, crunchy texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and concentrating its flavour before pickling.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp, tangy taste.
Whole cloves and allspice
Add warm, aromatic spice notes that flavour the hot vinegar and soak into the cabbage.
Cochineal
Adds colour, giving the cabbage its vivid pink-red hue.

The step that matters

Salting for 24 hours. Salt draws moisture out of the cabbage so it stays crisp rather than soggy. Drying it well afterwards helps the cabbage absorb the hot vinegar evenly and keeps the pickle firm.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, cider, vinegar, clove, allspice. 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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