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Salad

Salad, Red Cabbage

A salad made from finely sliced red cabbage, seasoned with salt, vinegar, oil, and cayenne pepper, left to sit for two days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salad, Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the outside leaves from the red cabbage.

  2. Finely slice the remaining cabbage into small thin pieces.

Dress and rest

  1. Mix the cabbage with the salt, vinegar, oil, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Let the salad sit for two days before serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Red cabbage
Provides the crisp, fibrous bulk that softens as the salad rests.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and seasoning the shreds.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and gradually softens the cabbage.
Oil
Adds fat that coats the shreds and mellows the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Let the salad sit for two days before serving. Salt and acid need time to work into the tough cabbage. Serving early leaves the shreds crunchy and the dressing harsh, while resting softens the texture and blends the flavours.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Cabbagethe original
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper. 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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