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Salad

Cabbage Salad

A salad of finely chopped cabbage, celery, and walnuts dressed with a vinegar-based sauce thickened with flour and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard 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 ↓

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a double boiler, combine ½ cup water and ½ cup vinegar; bring to a boil.

  2. In a bowl, mix together sugar, flour, dry mustard, salt, black pepper, and paprika.

  3. Add the mixture to the boiling vinegar and cook until it thickens.

  4. Cool the mixture and thin it with whipped cream.

Assemble the salad

  1. Just before serving, mix the dressing with the chopped cabbage, walnuts, and celery.

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 + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Walnut + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulky base of the salad.
Celery
Adds crunch and a fresh, mild texture to the salad.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavour that contrasts the dressing.
Flour
Thickens the boiled vinegar mixture into a smooth, body-rich dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing.
Whipped cream
Softens the cooked dressing, adding richness and a creamy texture.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until it thickens. Flour thickens only once it is heated well in the boiling liquid. Stopping early leaves a thin dressing, while overcooking can make it pasty. Cool the dressing fully before adding whipped cream, so the cream does not melt or deflate.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, celery, vinegar, sugar, flour, mustard, pepper):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, celery, vinegar, sugar, flour, mustard, 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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