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To Pickle Red Cabbage

A method for pickling a head of red cabbage with salt, saltpetre, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Strip off the outer leaves and cut out the stalk of the cabbage.

  2. Quarter the cabbage lengthwise and cut it crosswise into thick slices.

  3. Place the cabbage in a sieve and sprinkle with salt and saltpetre; let it drain for 24 hours.

  4. Squeeze the cabbage until very dry.

Pickle

  1. Boil the vinegar with the spices for 5 minutes, then strain it.

  2. Put the cabbage into a stone jar and pour the boiling hot vinegar over it.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Cabbage + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together443 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Cabbage + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together933 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides the bulk of the pickle and, as it is salted and drained, gives a firm, crisp texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, firming it and concentrating its flavour before pickling.
Vinegar
Supplies the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Whole cloves and allspice
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour to the vinegar as it is boiled and strained.

The step that matters

Squeezing the cabbage until very dry. Excess water left in the cabbage dilutes the vinegar and weakens the preservation and crispness, so the cabbage must be pressed dry after its long salting.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, allspice, mace):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, allspice, mace. 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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