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Salad

Cabbage Salad— No. 1

A shredded cabbage salad dressed with a vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and olive oil vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cabbage Salad— No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shred the cabbage finely.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Once cooled, whisk in olive oil.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour dressing over cabbage and toss to combine.

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

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

  2. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Cabbage + olivetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together685 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its crisp, fresh texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness and oil.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Olive oil
Adds fat and a smooth body that carries flavor through the dressing.

The step that matters

Let the dressing cool before adding the oil. Oil whisked into a hot liquid can separate and fail to emulsify smoothly, so the dressing may look greasy and break apart. Cooling first lets the oil blend in more evenly.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper, olive. 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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