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Red Cabbage

A pickled red cabbage prepared with spices, vinegar, and optional capsicum or cayenne.

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

Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Trim the outside leaves of the cabbage.

  2. Quarter the cabbage.

  3. Remove the hard stalk.

  4. Slice the quarters into a colander.

  5. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt between the layers of cabbage.

  6. Let it sit in the colander until the next day.

  7. Shake well to remove excess brine.

Pack and pickle

  1. Pack the cabbage into jars.

  2. Cover with hot pickle made from black pepper, allspice, ginger, horse-radish, common salt, and vinegar.

  3. Add capsicums or cayenne if desired.

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. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + capsicumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,571 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + radishtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
The main vegetable; salting softens it and lets it absorb the pickle.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, firming it and removing excess brine.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickle.
Ginger
Adds aroma and a sharp, warming bite.
Horse-radish
Adds pungent heat and a sharp aroma to the pickle.

The step that matters

Shake well to remove excess brine. Salt draws water out of the cabbage, leaving brine on the surface. Excess brine left in the jars dilutes the hot pickle and can make the cabbage soft and watery.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, allspice, horse, radish, vinegar, capsicum):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, allspice, horse, radish, vinegar, capsicum. 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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