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Cabbage Dressing

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with eggs, vinegar, mustard, pepper, salt, and oil or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cabbage Dressing

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cabbage Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan over low heat, whisk together the eggs and vinegar until thick and hot, but not boiling.

  2. Stir in the mustard, black pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the oil or melted butter.

Cool and store

  1. Allow the dressing to cool completely before using it on cabbage or cauliflower.

  2. Store in a cool place for up to one month.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the vinegar mixture as they cook gently, giving the dressing its body.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the eggs and oil.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.
Oil or melted butter
Adds fat and smoothness, making the dressing rich and silky.

The step that matters

Whisk the eggs and vinegar over low heat. If the heat is too high, the eggs can scramble or curdle before the mixture thickens. Gentle heat lets the egg proteins set slowly into a smooth, thick custard-like base.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

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