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Cabbage Dressing

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with eggs, vinegar, mustard, pepper, salt, and oil or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cabbage Dressing

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cabbage Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan over low heat, whisk together the eggs and vinegar until thick and hot, but not boiling.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in mustard, black pepper, and salt, then mix in the oil or melted butter.

Cool and store

  1. Allow to cool completely before using on cabbage or cauliflower.

  2. Store in a cool place for up to one month.

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.

  1. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the vinegar mixture as they set gently over low heat, giving the dressing body.
Vinegar
Provides sharpness that balances the richness of the eggs and oil.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.
Oil or melted butter
Adds fat and smoothness, mellowing the dressing's tang.

The step that matters

Heating the egg and vinegar mixture. Eggs thicken when heated gently, but if the mixture boils the proteins scramble and the dressing turns grainy. Keep it hot, not boiling, and stir constantly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, pepper, butter. 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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