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To Pickle Red-cabbage

A pickled red cabbage with beet root, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Pickle Red-cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into quarters and trim off the outer leaves.

  2. Remove the white stalk from the inside and place the cabbage on a large sieve.

  3. Sprinkle each layer with coarse sea salt and let it sit for 2-3 days.

Make the pickling vinegar

  1. In a saucepan, combine the white wine vinegar, allspice, bruised ginger, and black pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain the spices from the vinegar and bring it to a boil again.

Pack and seal the jar

  1. In a stone jar, layer the cabbage and beet root, starting with cabbage, then beet root, and repeat.

  2. Pour the hot vinegar over the cabbage and beet root.

  3. Once cooled, cover the jar with bladder and then white leather.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 packed, keeps its firm crisp texture.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage through osmosis, softening it and concentrating its flavour before pickling.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp taste.
Beet root
Gives the pickle its deep colour and an earthy sweetness as it layers with the cabbage.

The step that matters

Salting the cabbage for 2-3 days. Salt draws moisture out of the cabbage by osmosis. Too little salt or too short a time leaves the cabbage wet and less crisp, while the salt layers must reach every leaf for even seasoning and firmness.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, allspice, ginger, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, allspice, ginger, 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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