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Pickles, &C

A pickled cabbage preserved in a vinegar and spice mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cabbage 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 ↓

Pickles, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. Boil the vinegar, long pepper, white pepper, Cayenne, ginger, and mace together.

  2. Pour the mixture over the cabbage and stir well.

Steep

  1. Keep it covered from the air and stir daily for a month.

  2. It will be ready for use after a month.

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. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Ginger + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together545 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  4. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Ginger + macetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Cabbage
Is the vegetable being pickled, softening and taking on the spiced vinegar as it sits.
Long pepper
Adds a warm, pungent spice that flavours the pickling liquid.
White pepper
Adds a sharp, earthy heat to the pickling liquid.
Ginger
Adds a fresh, aromatic warmth to the pickle.

The step that matters

Keeping the cabbage covered and stirring daily. Keeping the jar covered limits contact with air, and daily stirring spreads the vinegar and spices evenly through the cabbage so it pickles uniformly over the month.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, ginger, mace, cabbage. 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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