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Salad

Cabbage and Nut Salad

A salad of finely chopped cabbage and walnuts dressed with a homemade mayonnaise-based vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Cabbage and Nut Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Make mayonnaise by beating the egg yolk.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of oil at a time, beating constantly until 10 teaspoons are used.

  3. Gradually increase the oil until all is incorporated.

  4. Mix in red pepper, paprika, and salt.

Assemble the salad

  1. Combine half of the dressing with finely chopped cabbage and walnuts.

  2. Add lemon juice if desired.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cabbage + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk
Emulsifies the oil into the dressing, giving it a thick, creamy mayonnaise texture.
Cooking oil
Provides the fat that forms the body and richness of the dressing.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the salad, providing crunch and a fresh, mild flavor.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavor that contrasts with the cabbage.

The step that matters

Adding the oil slowly while beating. Oil must be added a little at a time while beating constantly so the droplets disperse and are held by the egg yolk. Adding it too fast can cause the mayonnaise to break and separate into a greasy, runny mixture.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, cabbage, walnut):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, cabbage, walnut. 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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