Sensory descriptor
Cooked cabbage
A vegetal sulphur note from dimethyl sulphide, rising slowly during storage rather than during fermentation.
Also called Cabbage water, Boiled vegetable.
- Aroma family
- Sulphur
- Does it indicate a fault?
- Usually, yes
What causes it
Dimethyl sulphide is formed by the breakdown of S-methylmethionine and of dimethylsulphoniopropionate, precursors present in plant material, and unlike hydrogen sulphide it accumulates during storage rather than during fermentation. Heat accelerates its formation, which is why heat-treated products and warm-stored ones show it more. Its threshold is around 20 to 30 micrograms per litre in most drinks, and above that it reads as cooked vegetable, cabbage water or, at lower levels and in different company, as a savoury note.
Below threshold dimethyl sulphide adds a savoury dimension that is not identifiable as itself. Above it, it is unmistakably cooked vegetable, and because it forms during storage rather than fermentation it can appear in a cider that was sound at bottling.
The compounds responsible
Where the molecule is established. Some descriptors in this lexicon name a compound the compound register does not yet hold a record for; those are named in the cause above instead.
Dimethyl sulphide
A sulphur compound that reads as cooked vegetable in quantity and adds an indefinable savoury depth in trace, and which builds slowly during storage rather than during fermentation.
Amino acids
The largest usable nitrogen fraction in apple juice, and the raw material from which yeast builds both its own protein and most of the aroma compounds a cider carries.
The organisms that make it
Where a specific organism is implicated rather than the fruit. Naming one answers a different question from naming a molecule: what is in the cellar, rather than what is in the glass.
What raises it
Processes that increase this character, or preserve it where it would otherwise be lost.
Pasteurisation
Heating cider enough to inactivate the organisms that would spoil it, either in the sealed package or in-line before filling, at a measurable cost in fresh aroma.
Cellar storage
Holding packaged cider in conditions that let it change slowly and predictably, where stability of temperature matters more than the temperature itself.
Shelf-life management
Establishing how long a cider stays acceptable in its package and setting a durability date that reflects evidence rather than convention.
Juice storage
Holding unfermented juice sound between pressing and fermentation, by chilling, sulphiting, gas blanketing, freezing or aseptic filling.
The fault it points at
Meeting this descriptor above a certain intensity is how the fault below is usually noticed first.
Fault
A closed, stale, slightly sulphurous character in cider held under strongly oxygen-free conditions, sometimes clearing with air and sometimes not.
About Cooked cabbage
Cooked cabbage is unusual among the sulphur faults in being a storage phenomenon rather than a fermentation one, and it is therefore a temperature-control question. Cold storage substantially slows its formation.
It travels with the cooked-juice note in heat-abused products, since both are consequences of the same thermal load on the same amino acid pool.
Others in the sulphur family
Rotten egg, struck match, drains, rubber, cooked cabbage.
Rotten egg
Hydrogen sulphide from yeast under nitrogen stress — the commonest sulphur fault and the most correctable.
Drains
A heavy, stagnant, sewer-like note from mercaptans formed when hydrogen sulphide is left to react.
Struck match
The sharp, mineral, matchhead note of free sulphur dioxide above its perception threshold.
Flinty
A sub-threshold reductive note read as struck flint rather than as sulphur, the mildest state of reduction.
Lightstruck
A skunky, sulphidic note produced when light degrades riboflavin in clear or green glass.
Rubber
A burnt-rubber note from disulphides and higher mercaptans, generally a late stage of reductive fault.
Garlic
A pungent allium note from specific thiols and disulphides, occasionally from orchard spray residues.
What people ask next
Questions readers ask about the things this page mentions. Each one goes to the section that answers it rather than to a page written to receive the question.
- How long does cider last — An unopened commercial cider is usually at its finest within a year of packaging, and filtered, pasteurised products carry a stated date. Strong, tannic, bottle-conditioned ciders can improve for several years.
- Which yeast ferments cider — Saccharomyces cerevisiae finishes almost every cider fermentation, whether it was pitched or arrived from the press house. In a spontaneous ferment it is not the first organism present, only the one that survives the alcohol it makes.
- How should i store cider — Cool, dark and at a steady temperature. Light causes light-strike in clear glass, warmth accelerates oxidation, and temperature swings push cider past the closure of a bottle that is not tightly sealed.
- How is cider pasteurised
- How long can apple juice sit before i ferment it — Only hours at room temperature before wild fermentation begins. Chilled and sulphited it can be held for a day or two; beyond that it needs freezing, pasteurising or fermenting.
Where to go next
- The sensory model — The thirteen structural dimensions and the twenty aroma families, in full.
- Compounds — The chemistry behind the words.
- Troubleshooting — When a perception turns out to be a problem, this is where it is diagnosed.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Hochschule Geisenheim University — beverage technology
Hochschule Geisenheim · university · retrieved 2026-08-24
German beverage-technology research covering apple wine and fruit juice processing, including the enzymology of clarification.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.
Cider and perry production technical training material
Peter Mitchell / Cider and Perry Academy · reference work · registered as competent for this subject
Searched again on 2026-08-25 and it remains the one printed source here that a bibliographic check cannot fix, because it is not a published work with an edition. It is course material issued to participants of a training programme, so there is no catalogue record to verify, no ISBN, and no lawful public copy. Its state stays `registered` for that reason rather than through inattention.