Skip to main content
Main

Yellow Cabbage Pickles

Pickled yellow cabbage prepared with mustard seed, turmeric, celery seed, and red pepper in a vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Yellow Cabbage Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Quarter the cabbage and boil until tender.

  2. Drain the cabbage in a colander overnight.

  3. The next day, sprinkle the cabbage with turmeric and let it stand in the sun all day.

Pickle and pack

  1. Boil the vinegar with mustard seed, celery seed, salt, and red pepper.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the cabbage.

  3. Transfer the cabbage into stone jars.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Turmeric + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the pickle and absorbs the vinegar brine, becoming tender and soft.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Turmeric
Supplies the yellow color and an earthy, slightly bitter flavor to the cabbage.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, sharp flavor that comes through as the brine is heated.
Red pepper
Adds heat and a sharp, fresh bite to the brine.

The step that matters

Drain the cabbage in a colander overnight. Removing excess water before the brine is poured on helps the cabbage stay crisp-tender and keeps the vinegar mixture from being diluted, so the pickle holds its texture and flavor.

Swap the turmeric

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Turmericthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, mustard, celery, 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

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesRed CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipes