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Salad

Cabbage Salad

A salad of chopped cabbage dressed with a mustard, sugar, and vinegar cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat together the salt, mustard, sugar, sweet cream, vinegar, and eggs in a bowl.

  2. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it thickens to a cream.

  3. While still warm, pour the cream over the chopped cabbage.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 supplies its crisp, fresh texture.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they cook gently, giving it a creamy body and richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the dressing smooth and mellow.
Mustard
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour that gives the dressing depth.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing in a double boiler. Eggs thicken through gentle, indirect heat. If the mixture gets too hot, the eggs can curdle or scramble, leaving the dressing grainy instead of smooth and creamy.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, sugar, cream, vinegar, 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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