Name: Cold Slaw
Ingredients: 1 cup vinegar; 1 teaspoon mustard; 1 tablespoon salt; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 teaspoons celery seed; 3 eggs

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, combine vinegar, mustard, salt, butter, pepper, sugar, and celery seed. Heat until boiling.
Slowly whisk in the beaten eggs until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat immediately and pour over finely chopped cabbage, discarding stalks and hard veins.
Let cool before serving. This slaw can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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

Swap the celery

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

Tarragonfits better
Capersfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, butter, pepper, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.