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Cabbage, Pickled, Red

A pickled red cabbage prepared with vinegar, pepper, allspice, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cabbage, Pickled, Red

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and quarter it.

  2. Remove the center stalk and cut each section into very fine strips.

  3. Sprinkle the shredded cabbage liberally with coarse sea salt and let it sit overnight.

  4. Drain the cabbage in an earthenware or enamel colander.

Pickle

  1. Boil the vinegar, whole pepper, and allspice (tied in muslin) together, then allow to cool completely.

  2. Transfer the drained cabbage to a large jar and pour in the cooled vinegar mixture.

  3. Let it sit for 3 to 4 days 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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Cabbage + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together443 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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 provides the red color and crisp texture.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp, tangy flavor.
Whole pepper
Adds warm, pungent aroma to the infused vinegar.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the infused vinegar.

The step that matters

Salting the shredded cabbage overnight. Salt draws water out of the cabbage through osmosis, so it wilts and becomes crisp rather than soggy once the vinegar is added. Draining it well afterward keeps the pickle from being watery and diluting the vinegar.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, allspice. 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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