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Cabbage Salad

A cabbage salad mixed with a custard of milk, eggs, butter, sugar, and seasonings.

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

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Shred the cabbage finely and set it on ice.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the sweet milk in a vessel.

  2. Heat the vinegar in a separate vessel until scalding-hot.

  3. Stir in the butter, sugar, celery essence, pepper, and salt into the vinegar and boil sharply.

  4. Stir in the cabbage until smoking-hot, but do not boil.

  5. Pour the hot milk over the beaten eggs.

  6. Cook the mixture until it begins to thicken.

Combine and chill

  1. Turn the hot cabbage into a bowl.

  2. Pour the custard over the cabbage.

  3. Stir rapidly until well mixed.

  4. Cover and let it cool suddenly.

  5. Keep it on ice until needed.

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 gives it its crisp, fresh texture.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving the dressing body.
Sweet milk
Makes the custard creamy and mellows the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the custard.
White sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with gentle sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until it begins to thicken. Egg proteins set with heat, so the custard thickens as it cooks. Overheating or boiling after the eggs are added can curdle them, leaving a grainy dressing. Stop as soon as it thickens.

Swap the celery

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

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

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