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Red Cabbage Pickle

A pickled red cabbage preserved in a vinegar brine with cloves, pepper, mace, sugar, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,840 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Red Cabbage Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the cabbage

  1. Place the quartered cabbage in a jar and cover it with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let it stand for 24 hours.

  3. Drain off the brine.

  4. Wipe the cabbage dry.

  5. Cover it with cold water for 12 hours.

Pickle and store

  1. In a pot, bring 2 quarts of vinegar to a boil, adding whole cloves, white pepper, blades of mace, sugar, and celery seed.

  2. Pack the cabbage into a crock.

  3. Pour the boiling vinegar mixture over it.

  4. Cover the crock and store it in a cool place.

  5. Allow to pickle for at least 6 weeks to 2 months before using.

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 + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  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

Red cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulk body of the pickle that absorbs the spiced vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening it and helping it stay crisp during brining.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Whole cloves, white pepper, and mace
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses into the vinegar and cabbage.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the cabbage before adding the vinegar. Salting and resting draws out water; if the cabbage stays wet, it dilutes the vinegar and weakens the pickle's preserving acidity and crispness.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, clove, mace, sugar, celery. 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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