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Pickled Red Cabbage

A fermented pickle made from sliced red cabbage, salt, vinegar, 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 ↓

Pickled Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the outer decayed leaves from the cabbage and cut it into quarters.

  2. Remove the stalks and slice the cabbage thinly.

  3. Place the sliced cabbage on a dish. Sprinkle the cabbage generously with salt. Cover the cabbage with another dish.

  4. Let the cabbage sit for 24 hours.

  5. Drain the cabbage in a colander. Lightly wipe the cabbage with a clean cloth if needed.

Pickle and store

  1. Pack the cabbage into a jar.

  2. Boil the vinegar with ginger, black pepper, and cayenne (if using). Let the vinegar cool.

  3. Pour the cooled vinegar over the cabbage. Seal the jar.

  4. Store the jar in a dry place.

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. Cabbage + vinegartop 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

Red cabbage
Forms the main body of the pickle and stays crisp-textured as it cures.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage through osmosis, softening it and concentrating flavour.
Vinegar
Acidifies the cabbage, preserving it and giving the pickle its sharp taste.
Ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic note that flavours the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Letting the salted cabbage sit for 24 hours. Salt must draw out enough water for the cabbage to soften and become receptive to the vinegar. Too short a rest leaves it crunchy and under-seasoned, so the full resting time matters.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, 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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