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Red Cabbage

A braised red cabbage dish with apple, vinegar, cloves, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Red Cabbage

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely slice the red cabbage using a slaw cutter.

  2. Salt the cabbage and mix well, then chop the sour apple and add it.

Braise

  1. In a porcelain-lined kettle, heat the goose oil or drippings.

  2. Finely chop the onion and add it to the kettle with the cabbage.

  3. Cover and stew slowly, adding a little hot water after boiling for 5 minutes.

  4. Once tender, stir in vinegar, a few cloves, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Taste and adjust sugar if needed.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes tender during slow stewing.
Sour apple
Adds tartness and fruity sweetness that balances the richness of the fat.
Goose oil or drippings
Provides fat for richer flavor and helps the cabbage soften without sticking.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma as it softens into the braise.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps keep the cabbage's red color vivid.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and apple.

The step that matters

Stewing slowly with a little hot water. Cabbage can scorch or turn watery if heated too fast. Gentle, covered stewing with only a small amount of added water lets it soften in its own moisture while the sugars develop without burning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, apple, vinegar, clove, sugar, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, apple, vinegar, clove, sugar, cinnamon. 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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