Why it works: Mustard and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
Beat the eggs with sugar and butter until combined.
Add mustard, pepper, vinegar, and sweet cream; cook until thickened.
Dress and serve
Let the mixture cool, then pour it over the shredded cabbage and mix well.
Allow the salad to stand for at least 30 minutes, then mix again.
Garnish with sliced hard-boiled eggs.
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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Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Thicken the dressing as they set when cooked, giving it body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dressing to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tangy flavour.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and smoothness to the cooked dressing.
- Shredded cabbage
- Forms the base of the salad that the dressing coats.
The step that matters
Cook the dressing until thickened. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. If the mixture overheats or is cooked too long, the eggs can scramble and turn grainy, so stir constantly and remove it once it coats a spoon.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, mustard, pepper, vinegar, cream):
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, mustard, pepper, 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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