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Cabbage Salad

A chilled cabbage salad mixed with boiled eggs, milk, vinegar, butter, sugar, celery essence, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. Heat the milk and vinegar in separate vessels.

  2. To the boiling vinegar, add the butter, sugar, and seasonings, then add the chopped cabbage.

  3. Heat to scalding, but do not let it boil.

Make the egg milk

  1. Stir the beaten eggs into the hot milk and cook for one minute after it begins to boil.

Combine and chill

  1. Turn the hot cabbage into a bowl and pour the milk mixture over it.

  2. Toss until all ingredients are well mixed.

  3. Cover and set in a very cold place for several hours.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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 salad and soaks up the dressing as it chills.
Eggs
Thicken the hot milk mixture as they cook, giving the dressing body.
Milk
Carries the beaten eggs and, once heated, makes the dressing creamy.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sugar and softens the cabbage.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to offset the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten eggs into the hot milk and cook for one minute after it begins to boil. Eggs thicken when heated but scramble if overcooked or boiled hard. Holding the mixture just past the boil gives a smooth, thickened dressing rather than curdled bits.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, milk, vinegar, butter, sugar, egg, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, milk, vinegar, butter, sugar, egg, pepper. 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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