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Cabbage Dressing

A dressing made with vinegar, egg yolks, sugar, mustard, butter, and cream.

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

  1. Heat the vinegar until hot but not boiling.

  2. In a bowl, beat the yolks of the eggs.

  3. Remove the vinegar from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Add the sugar, mustard, and butter, mixing well.

  5. Finally, stir in the cream until combined.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the hot vinegar mixture and add richness to the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Cream
Adds fat and softness, mellowing the dressing into a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Stir the yolks into the hot vinegar. Adding beaten yolks to very hot liquid gently cooks and thickens them; if the vinegar is boiling or the yolks are added too quickly, they can scramble into lumps. Removing the vinegar from heat first helps keep the dressing smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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