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Cabbage with Sweet Picexe

A sweet pickled cabbage relish made with molasses, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbage with Sweet Picexe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut the cabbage into quarters.

  2. Soak the cabbage quarters in cold water for a short time.

  3. Chop the cabbage and celery finely.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a pot, combine molasses, vinegar, red pepper, cinnamon, and other spices.

  2. Boil the mixture for a few moments.

Pack and store

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the chopped cabbage and celery in small jars or cans.

  2. Seal the jars.

  3. Store the sealed jars in a cool place.

  4. Let the relish sit for three to four weeks before eating.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  4. Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the relish and provides its crisp, chopped texture.
Celery
Adds crunch and a fresh, savoury note alongside the cabbage.
Molasses
Provides sweetness and dark colour to the pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the vegetables and sharpens the flavour.

The step that matters

Sealing and resting the jars. Pouring the hot liquid over the vegetables and sealing the jars creates a closed environment. Keeping them cool and letting them rest for weeks allows the vegetables to absorb the vinegar and spices, so the flavour develops fully.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, molasses, vinegar, pepper, cinnamon. 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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