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Cabbage Dressing

A creamy dressing made with cream, vinegar, sugar, butter, mustard, cornstarch, and seasonings, poured over chopped cabbage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cabbage Dressing

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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage and set aside.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream, vinegar, sugar, butter, salt, mustard, and cornstarch.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat until it boils, stirring constantly.

Combine

  1. Pour the hot dressing over the chopped cabbage and stir 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.

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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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 dish and provides the crisp texture that the dressing coats.
Cream
Adds richness and body, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Cornstarch
Thickens the dressing as it heats and boils.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor and aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Boiling the dressing while stirring constantly. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, and constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan. Stopping early leaves the dressing thin or uneven.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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