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German Red Cabbage

A simmered cabbage dish with apples, onions, sherry, vinegar, sugar, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

German Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slowly add the shaved cabbage to the boiling water.

  2. Add the chopped onion, apples, salt, pepper, and allspice.

  3. Stir in the sherry, vinegar, and sugar.

  4. Add the butter and let the mixture simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  4. Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  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 cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and softens into tender strands as it simmers.
Apples
Break down during simmering to add body and natural sweetness to the braise.
Sherry
Adds aromatic depth and acidity that balances the sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps the cabbage keep its bright red color.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and sherry with sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished cabbage.

The step that matters

Slow simmer. Cabbage needs a long, gentle simmer to turn tender. Too little time leaves it tough, while a hard boil can scorch the bottom of the pot and break the apples down unevenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, apple, pepper, allspice, sherry, vinegar, sugar. 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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