Why it works: Pepper and capsicum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,571 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Pickled Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cabbage
Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage and cut it in half.
Remove the stalk and shred the cabbage into narrow slices.
Sprinkle the cabbage with salt and let it sit in a pan for 2 days.
After 2 days, drain the cabbage until it is quite dry.
Make the pickle
Prepare the pickle by infusing the ground pepper, ground spice, and bruised ginger in 1 quart of strong vinegar for 3 days near the fire.
Strain the pickle to remove solids and let it cool completely.
Pack and seal
Pack the cabbage lightly into jars until they are about ¾ full.
Pour the cooled pickle over the cabbage in the jars and secure them properly.
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.
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Pepper + capsicumtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,571 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Ginger + capsicumtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,890 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together545 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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 jar; salting softens it and draws out moisture so it can take up the pickle.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cabbage, firming it and concentrating its flavour before pickling.
- Strong vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
- Ground pepper
- Adds pungent heat to the pickle as it infuses into the vinegar.
- Ground spice
- Adds aromatic warmth to the pickle as it infuses into the vinegar.
The step that matters
Drain the cabbage until quite dry. Excess water left in the cabbage dilutes the vinegar pickle and can soften the cabbage or spoil it, so it must be well drained after salting.
Swap the ginger
The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, vinegar, capsicum):
- Dillfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Corianderfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, 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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