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Cabbage with Sweet Pickle

A sweet pickle made from cabbage, celery, molasses, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbage with Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut the cabbage into quarters and soak in cold water for a short time.

  2. Chop the cabbage and celery finely.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In a pot, combine molasses, vinegar, red pepper, cinnamon, and other spices.

  2. Boil the mixture for a few moments.

Pack and store

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the chopped cabbage and celery in small jars or cans.

  2. Seal the jars and store them in a cool place for 3 to 4 weeks before eating.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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 pickle and provides the crisp, crunchy texture.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a mild, fresh flavour to the pickled mix.
Molasses
Provides sweetness and a dark, rich flavour to the pickling liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the vegetables.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the vegetables and seal. The liquid must be boiling hot when poured so the vegetables are well coated and the sealed jars are less likely to spoil. Store the sealed jars in a cool place so the flavours can develop over the stated weeks.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, molasses, vinegar, pepper, cinnamon. 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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