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Pickled Red Cabbage

A pickled cabbage dish made with vinegar, water, salt, peppercorns, sugar, and mustard seeds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pickled Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage and cut it into quarters.

  2. Slice the cabbage into thin strips.

Make the brine and cook

  1. Combine vinegar, water, salt, peppercorns, and sugar in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the cabbage to the pot.

  4. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack the cabbage into sterilized jars.

  2. Pour the hot brine over the cabbage, leaving ½ inch of headspace.

  3. Seal the jars.

  4. Let them cool before refrigerating.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 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

Red cabbage
Forms the main body of the pickle and stays crisp-tender during brief simmering.
White vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp, tangy flavor.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the brine, helping the cabbage absorb flavor.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Black peppercorns
Adds a mild, warm spice that flavors the brine.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot brine and sealing the jars. Hot brine and sterilized jars help reduce microbes and create a seal, while leaving headspace allows for expansion. Skipping these steps can lead to spoilage.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, 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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