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
Ingredients
Directions
Combine
Combine the chopped cabbage with the dressing ingredients in a bowl.
Make the dressing
Mix the yolks of the hard boiled eggs with melted butter, sugar, pepper, salt, and vinegar.
Heat the mixture together until warm.
Let the mixture cool.
Finish
Once cooled, mix thoroughly with the cabbage.
Garnish with the whites of the eggs.
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.
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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage
- Provides the crisp, bulky body of the salad that the dressing coats.
- Egg yolks
- Their fats and proteins help emulsify and thicken the dressing, giving it a creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, softening the sharp bite of the vinegar.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds acidity and tang that brightens the dressing and cuts the richness.
The step that matters
Heating the dressing until warm. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but too much heat can scramble them and make the dressing grainy. Keep the heat gentle and stop once the mixture is warm.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, pepper, cider, vinegar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Cucumberfits about as well
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, pepper, cider, 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.
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