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Cabbage, Bed, Pickled

A pickled cabbage prepared with cochineal, vinegar, coarse sea salt, ginger, and pepper.

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 ↓

Cabbage, Bed, Pickled

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Place cochineal in a small bag and soak it in vinegar.

  2. Add a little coarse sea salt and bring to a boil.

  3. Scald the cabbage with the boiling mixture.

  4. Boil the mixture again, adding ginger and pepper.

  5. Allow the mixture to cool.

Pickle and seal

  1. Transfer the cabbage to jars and pour the cooled pickling liquid over it.

  2. Seal the jars tightly.

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 + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together545 recipes

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

  3. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. 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

Cabbage
Is the vegetable being pickled, taking on colour and tang as it sits in the liquid.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
Cochineal
Supplies the natural red dye that colours the pickled cabbage.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the liquid and helps draw flavour into the cabbage.

The step that matters

Scald the cabbage with the boiling mixture. Brief contact with boiling liquid softens the cabbage slightly so it absorbs the pickling liquid evenly. Overcooking it turns it limp and soggy.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cabbage, 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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