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Pickled Cabbage

A fermented cabbage preserved with salt, pepper, bay leaves, and wine vinegar.

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 ↓

Pickled Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Trim the outer leaves of the cabbage and cut them into quarters, removing the stalks.

  2. Cut the tender leaves into fine shreds and place them in an earthen bowl.

  3. Mix the cabbage with ½ pound of coarse sea salt.

Brine and pack

  1. After three days, drain off the liquid.

  2. Pack the cabbage into glass jars, filling them three-quarters full.

  3. Add a few grains of pepper and 2 bay leaves to each jar.

  4. Pour enough wine vinegar into each jar to cover the cabbage completely.

Store

  1. Seal the jars tightly and store them in a cool place.

  2. After using, ensure each jar is tightly covered.

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. Wine + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 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

Cabbage
Forms the main body of the pickle, giving crisp texture once salted and packed.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture from the cabbage, softening it and helping preserve it.
Wine vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the cabbage in the jars.
Bay leaves
Adds a subtle aromatic herbal note to the pickled cabbage.

The step that matters

Draining after three days. Salt has drawn liquid out of the cabbage over this period; removing that liquid before packing keeps the pickle from becoming watery and helps the vinegar cover it properly.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, wine, vinegar. 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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