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Bed Cabbage

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

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 ↓

Bed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. Place cochineal in a small bag and boil it with vinegar.

  2. Add a little salt and coarse sea salt.

  3. Boil the vinegar again, adding ginger and pepper.

  4. Let the mixture cool completely.

Pickle and seal

  1. Once boiling, scald sliced cabbage with the vinegar mixture.

  2. Place cabbage in jars and pour the cooled pickle over it.

  3. 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 main vegetable that is pickled and gives the dish its crisp texture.
Cochineal
Provides the coloring that turns the pickle red or purple.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp flavor.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool completely before pouring it over the cabbage. Pouring hot pickle over the cabbage softens it and can cook it further, leaving it limp rather than crisp. Cooling the liquid first keeps the texture firm.

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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