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Cabbage Pickle

A pickled cabbage preserved in a mixture of brine, vinegar, cinnamon bark, cloves, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cabbage Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Brine

  1. Fill a 2-gallon jar with quartered cabbage.

  2. Pour hot brine over the cabbage and let it sit for 4 days.

Vinegar and spice

  1. Squeeze the cabbage to remove excess brine and pour weak vinegar over it.

  2. Let the cabbage stand for several days.

  3. In a separate container, combine cider vinegar, cinnamon bark, essence of cloves, and turmeric.

  4. Pour this mixture over the cabbage and seal the jar tightly.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Vinegar + cidertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Cabbage + turmerictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together618 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Is the main vegetable that becomes crisp and tangy as it pickles.
Cider vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cabbage and gives it its sharp flavor.
Cinnamon bark
Adds warm, sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.
Turmeric
Gives the cabbage a yellow color and a mild earthy flavor.

The step that matters

Sealing the jar after adding the spiced vinegar. A tightly sealed jar keeps air out so the acidic liquid can preserve the cabbage and limit spoilage. Cabbage left exposed to air can grow mold or spoil.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, cider, cinnamon, clove, turmeric):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cider, cinnamon, clove, turmeric. 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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