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Preserve

Red Cabbage to Tickle

A preserve of purple red cabbage salted, drained, and covered with boiling vinegar in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Red Cabbage to Tickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cabbage into a colander and sprinkle each layer with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let it drain for two days.

Pickle

  1. Transfer the cabbage to a jar and pour enough boiling vinegar to cover it.

  2. Add a few slices of red beet root for color.

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 + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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
Provides the main bulk and crisp texture of the pickle.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage so it drains and becomes crisp rather than soggy.
Boiling vinegar
Adds sourness and acidity that preserves the cabbage and sharpens its flavour.
Red beet root
Lends a deep red colour to the pickling liquid and cabbage.

The step that matters

Draining with salt for two days. Salt must be spread evenly through each layer so the cabbage releases enough water. Under-salting leaves it soft and prone to spoiling, while the drain time sets how crisp and seasoned the final pickle becomes.

“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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