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Salad

Potato or Cabbage Salad

A salad of chopped potatoes or cabbage dressed with a mixture of egg, butter, sugar, mustard, milk, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato or Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onion and potatoes finely.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the egg, melted butter, sugar, salt, mustard, and sweet milk.

  2. Heat the mixture over boiling water, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  3. Gradually add the vinegar while stirring.

Finish

  1. Garnish the dish with lettuce leaves.

  2. Chop cabbage finely.

  3. Pour the dressing over the cabbage.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the heated dressing as its proteins set, giving it body.
Melted butter
Adds richness and smooth fat to the dressing.
Sweet milk
Makes the dressing creamy and softens its sharpness.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that cuts through the richness of the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sourness with sweetness.
Onion
Adds sharp, aromatic bite.

The step that matters

Heat the egg mixture over boiling water, stirring constantly until it thickens. Egg proteins can curdle or scramble if overheated. Gentle indirect heat from boiling water, with constant stirring, lets the mixture thicken evenly and smoothly before the vinegar is added.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, butter, sugar, mustard, milk, vinegar. 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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