Skip to main content
Main

Red Cabbage Slaw

A fermented cabbage dish seasoned with salt, vinegar, mace, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Red Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the cabbage

  1. Place the shaved cabbage in a jar or bowl.

  2. Sprinkle salt over the cabbage and let it stand for 12 hours.

  3. Drain the cabbage and let it stand for an additional hour.

Pickle and set aside

  1. Boil the vinegar with mace and black pepper for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain out the spices and pour the hot vinegar over the cabbage until covered.

  3. Cover the jar with a cloth and set it aside.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Cabbage + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together415 recipes

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

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 slaw and gives it crisp texture and its colour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and concentrating its flavour.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the slaw.
Whole mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.
Whole black pepper
Adds a mild, pungent spice note to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Draining after salting. Salt has already pulled water from the cabbage; draining and resting for an extra hour lets it drop further so the slaw stays crisp and does not dilute the vinegar. Leaving excess brine behind keeps the texture from turning limp.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, 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.

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes