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Yellow Cabbage Pickle

A pickled cabbage dish flavored with turmeric, mustard seed, horseradish, and other spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Yellow Cabbage Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Layer cabbage in a kettle, sprinkling each layer with salt, turmeric, mustard seed, horseradish, black pepper, red pepper, celery seed, and ginger. Continue layering until the kettle is full.

  2. For easier removal, place spices in thin muslin bags.

Cook and store

  1. Cover with vinegar and cook slowly until done.

  2. Spread the cooked cabbage on dishes to cool.

  3. Store in a jar with fresh, cold vinegar and additional spices.

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 + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 softens as it cooks slowly in vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Turmeric
Provides the yellow colour and an earthy, warm flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, slightly bitter bite that mellows during cooking.
Horseradish
Contributes sharp, pungent heat that fades somewhat with cooking.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until done. Cooking gently lets the cabbage soften and absorb the vinegar and spices evenly. High heat can make it mushy or scorch the vinegar, so low, steady heat gives a tender, well-flavoured result.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, turmeric, mustard, horseradish, pepper, celery, vinegar. 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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