Why it works: Cabbage and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Pickled Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cabbage
Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage and quarter it, discarding the stalk.
Slice the cabbage into pieces one-third of an inch thick.
Salt and drain
Layer the cabbage in a jar, sprinkling salt between the layers, and let it stand overnight.
The next morning, drain the cabbage as dry as possible.
Pickle
Cover the cabbage with boiling hot vinegar and add spices to taste.
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.
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Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 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 the crisp, crunchy texture.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture from the cabbage, softening it and helping it stay crisp.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
The step that matters
Drain the cabbage as dry as possible. Salt has drawn water out of the cabbage overnight. Any moisture left behind dilutes the boiling vinegar, weakening the acidity and flavour of the pickle.
“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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