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Pickled Red Cabbage

Pickled red cabbage preserved in vinegar, pepper, cloves, mustard seed, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Shred the cabbage finely using a slaw cutter.

  2. Layer the shredded cabbage in a stone jar, sprinkling each layer with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let the cabbage stand for 48 hours.

  4. Drain off the liquid that forms.

Pickle and store

  1. Pour boiling vinegar over the cabbage, seasoned with black pepper, cloves, mustard seed, and sliced ginger root.

  2. Once cold, seal the jar hermetically and store in a cool place.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 of the pickle and gives it its crisp texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and concentrating its flavour before pickling.
Boiling vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp taste.

The step that matters

Salting and resting the cabbage. Salt must be spread evenly through each layer so the cabbage releases enough liquid over 48 hours. Draining that liquid before adding the hot vinegar keeps the pickle from becoming watery.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, pepper, clove, mustard. 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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