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To Pickle Red Cabbage

A pickled red cabbage dish seasoned with salt, vinegar, black pepper, allspice, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

To Pickle Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into very thin slices.

  2. Sprinkle salt over the cabbage and let it drain for 24 hours.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Boil black pepper and allspice in vinegar.

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

Pack and finish

  1. Pack the cabbage tightly and cover it well.

  2. Mix in sliced onions for added flavor.

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Forms the main bulk and crisp, sliced texture of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and concentrating its flavor.
Vinegar
Acidifies the cabbage, preserving it and giving it its sharp, tangy taste.
Black pepper
Adds warm, sharp aroma that infuses into the vinegar.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the pickling liquid.
Onions
Add a mild sweetness and savory aroma to the pickled mix.

The step that matters

Draining the cabbage with salt. Salt must be spread evenly and left long enough to draw out moisture. Too little salt or too short a rest leaves the cabbage watery and less crisp, while the salt pulls water out through osmosis so the pickling liquid can penetrate.

Swap the onion

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

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

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