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To Pickle Red Cabbage

A simple pickled red cabbage prepared with vinegar, cloves, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the stalks and outside leaves from the cabbage and slice it thinly.

Pickle

  1. In a bowl, mix the vinegar, cloves, and ginger.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool, then pour it over the sliced cabbage.

  3. Let it sit for twelve hours before using.

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cabbage + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together545 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together933 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Provides the crisp, firm bulk that the pickling liquid softens and colors.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that flavors the cabbage and keeps its red color bright.
Cloves
Adds warm, pungent aroma to the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds spicy, fresh aroma that balances the sharp vinegar.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before pouring it over the cabbage. Hot liquid partly cooks the thin cabbage slices, softening their crunch and making them limp. Cooled liquid keeps the texture firm during the long rest.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, ginger. 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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