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To Pickle Red Cabbage

A pickled red cabbage prepared with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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

  1. Cut the cabbage into slips and wash it clean.

  2. Place the cabbage in a pan with plenty of coarse sea salt for two days.

  3. Drain the cabbage on a large sieve until dry.

Make the pickling vinegar

  1. Boil enough vinegar to cover the cabbage for half an hour with the spices.

  2. Strain the vinegar and let it cool.

  3. Add a little bruised cochineal to the cooled vinegar.

Pack and pickle

  1. Pack the cabbage into jars tightly.

  2. Alternatively, pour the boiling vinegar over the cabbage, then add bruised cochineal once cooled.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 provides its crisp texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, firming it before pickling.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that pickles and helps preserve the cabbage.
Cochineal
Natural red colourant that tints the vinegar and cabbage.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the pickling vinegar.

The step that matters

Drain the cabbage until dry. Any water left on the cabbage dilutes the vinegar, weakening its acidity and reducing its ability to preserve and pickle the cabbage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, vinegar, pepper, allspice, clove, ginger, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, pepper, allspice, clove, ginger, nutmeg. 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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