Name: Cabbage Salad
Ingredients: 1 head of fine white cabbage, minced; 3 hard-boiled eggs; 2 tablespoons salad oil; 2 teaspoons white sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon prepared mustard; 1 teacup vinegar

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

In a large bowl, combine the minced cabbage and chopped hard-boiled eggs.
Add the salad oil, white sugar, salt, pepper, prepared mustard, and vinegar, then mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well combined.
Serve immediately or chill before serving.

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.

Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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 provides crisp, fresh texture.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and body, softening the sharpness of the dressing.
Salad oil: Coats the cabbage and eggs, carrying flavor and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
White sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dish and helps keep the cabbage crisp.
Prepared mustard: Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that complements the eggs and oil.

Swap the cabbage

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

Horseradishfits better
Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits about as well
Cabbagethe original

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