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Red-cabbage

Cooked red cabbage with onion, butter, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,001 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Red-cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the minced onion, salt, and shaved cabbage.

  3. Add a little water if necessary.

Simmer and finish

  1. Simmer for about 3 hours.

  2. Add vinegar and sugar 1 to 2 hours before serving.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and softens into a tender, braised texture as it simmers.
Onion
Adds savory depth and a mild sweetness as it cooks down in the fat.
Butter or good drippings
Carries flavor and gives the cabbage richness while it braises.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the cabbage's red color.
Sugar
Rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar with a gentle sweetness.

The step that matters

Add vinegar and sugar 1 to 2 hours before serving. Acid added early can slow the cabbage from softening, leaving it tough. Adding the vinegar and sugar late lets the cabbage become tender first, and the sweet-sour balance then settles into the dish before serving.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, vinegar, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, vinegar, sugar. 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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