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Salad

Cabbage Salad

A chilled cabbage salad dressed with a custard made from milk, eggs, butter, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Heat the milk and vinegar in separate pots.

  2. When the vinegar begins to boil, add the butter, sugar, and seasoning; boil briefly and stir in the cabbage.

  3. Heat the cabbage mixture until scalding, but do not let it boil.

Make the custard and serve

  1. Heat the milk, add the eggs, and cook for one minute after it begins to thicken.

  2. Place the cabbage in a deep bowl, pour the custard over it, mix well, and serve cold.

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.

  1. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. 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 its crisp, fresh texture.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set when gently cooked, coating the cabbage.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs thicken.
Vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that gives the salad its tang.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the cooked cabbage mixture.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard after it begins to thicken. Eggs set when heated, but overcooking them can curdle or scramble the custard, making it grainy. Stopping at one minute after thickening keeps it smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, milk, vinegar, butter, egg, sugar, 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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