Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Pickled Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cabbage
Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage and cut it in half.
Remove the stalk and shred the cabbage into narrow slices.
Sprinkle the cabbage with salt and let it sit in a pan for 2 days.
Drain the cabbage until completely dry.
Make the pickle and pack
Pack the cabbage lightly into jars until about ¾ full.
Prepare the pickle by infusing the pepper, allspice, and ginger in 1 quart of vinegar for 3 days by the fire.
Strain the pickle and let it cool before pouring it over the cabbage in the jars.
Optionally, add pieces of ginger and capsicums to each jar for extra heat.
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.
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Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + capsicumtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,571 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Allspice + capsicumtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,862 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red cabbage
- Forms the bulk of the pickle and, once salted and drained, becomes crisp and tender.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and concentrating its flavour before pickling.
- Strong vinegar
- Acidity preserves the cabbage and sharpens its flavour, while infused spices carry through the liquid.
- Ground pepper
- Adds warm, pungent heat that infuses into the vinegar.
- Ground allspice
- Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes to the infused vinegar.
The step that matters
Drain the cabbage until completely dry. Any moisture left on the cabbage dilutes the vinegar and can weaken the pickle and its keeping quality, so the cabbage should be thoroughly dried before packing.
Swap the ginger
The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, allspice, vinegar, capsicum):
- Clovefits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Thymefits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, allspice, vinegar, capsicum. 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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