Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Finely chop the cabbage and mash it with a potato masher.
Chill the cabbage.
Dress and mix
Add sugar and salt to taste.
Mix in vinegar and cream.
Stir rapidly until the mixture becomes foamy.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,064 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,037 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
- Forms the bulk of the salad and gives it its crisp, fresh texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the salad a sharp, tangy flavour.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
The step that matters
Stir rapidly until the mixture becomes foamy.. Cream whipped or stirred too far changes structure and can turn from foamy to grainy or separated. Stop once the foam forms, rather than continuing until the texture breaks.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cream):
- Mustardfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cream. 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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