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Cabbage Sot

A pickled cabbage dish with tomatoes, onions, peppers, vinegar, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbage Sot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes separately and squeeze out the excess water.

Cook and jar

  1. Mix all ingredients together in a large pot.

  2. Heat the mixture on the stove until thoroughly scalded.

  3. Transfer the mixture into jars for storage.

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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 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 provides a crisp, firm texture.
Green tomatoes
Add tartness and body, and their excess water is squeezed out first to keep the pickle from thinning.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and depth.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and aroma as they cook down into the mixture.

The step that matters

Squeezing out the tomato water. Green tomatoes release a lot of liquid. If it is not squeezed out, the pickle becomes watery and dilutes the vinegar, weakening both flavour and preservation.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, tomato, pepper, vinegar, sugar, celery, clove. 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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