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 ↓
Cabbaob Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cabbage
Chop the cabbage finely and soak it in a brine made of water and salt for 2 hours.
Drain the cabbage and place it in an earthen jar.
Mix in the pepper, mustard, and sugar.
Make the dressing
Boil the vinegar with the butter.
Carefully add the beaten eggs to the vinegar mixture and stir well.
Pour the mixture over the cabbage and stir thoroughly.
Chill and serve
Refrigerate until ice cold before serving.
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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Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + peppertop 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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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage
- Forms the bulk of the salad, and its firm leaves stay crisp under the dressing.
- Eggs
- Their proteins set when heated, thickening the hot vinegar mixture into a creamy dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds the sharp acidity that brightens the cabbage and cuts through the richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Sugar
- Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten eggs to the hot vinegar mixture. Egg proteins set when they meet heat, so if they are added quickly they can scramble into lumps. Adding them carefully while stirring well lets them blend in smoothly and thicken the dressing evenly.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mustard, sugar, vinegar, butter, egg):
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mustard, sugar, vinegar, butter, egg. 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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