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To Pickle Red Cabbage

A pickled red cabbage preserved in vinegar, ginger, pepper, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

To Pickle Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and drain

  1. Slice the cabbage thinly and place it in an earthen dish.

  2. Cover and let it stand for two days.

  3. Drain the cabbage through a sieve.

Pickle and seal

  1. Boil the vinegar with ginger, black pepper, and alum.

  2. Pour the hot vinegar over the cabbage and cover it tightly.

  3. Once cooled, seal the jar with leather or paper.

  4. It will be ready to use in a few days.

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. Cabbage + vinegartop 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

Red cabbage
Forms the main body of the pickle and takes up the vinegar's color and flavor.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp, tangy taste.
Alum
Helps the cabbage stay firm and crisp during pickling.

Swap the hazelnut

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

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Hazelnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, ginger, 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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