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Salad

Spanish Salad

A salad of shredded cabbage and green peppers dressed with a mustard, egg, butter, vinegar, cream, and olive oil sauce.

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

Spanish Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Shred the cabbage very fine.

  2. Remove the seeds from the green peppers and soak them in cold water with ice for 1 hour to crisp.

  3. Drain the vegetables well.

Make the dressing

  1. Combine mustard, salt, sugar, beaten egg, melted butter, and vinegar in a double boiler.

  2. Cook the mixture until thickened.

  3. Let the dressing cool completely.

  4. Stir in the cream and olive oil.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks and gives it a creamy body.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and richness.
Cream
Mellows the dressing and adds a smooth, silky texture.
Olive oil
Adds fat and flavour, helping the dressing feel rich and emulsified.
Cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulky base of the salad.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until thickened. The egg proteins set as they heat, thickening the dressing. If the heat is too high or the mixture is left unstirred, the egg can scramble and turn grainy. A double boiler keeps the heat gentle.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, sugar, egg, butter, 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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