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Cabbage Salad

A cabbage salad with a custard dressing made from milk, vinegar, butter, sugar, eggs, celery essence, pepper, and sea salt.

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 custard

  1. Heat the milk in a pot.

  2. Stir the beaten eggs into the hot milk.

  3. Cook the mixture for one minute after it begins to boil.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Heat the vinegar in a separate pot.

  2. Add butter, sugar, and seasoning to the boiling vinegar.

  3. Stir in the chopped cabbage.

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

  5. Transfer the hot cabbage to a bowl.

  6. Pour the custard over the cabbage.

  7. Toss gently with a wooden or silver fork until well mixed.

  8. Cover the salad.

  9. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

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. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Celery + cabbagetop 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. Vinegar + cabbagetop 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

Eggs
Thicken the milk mixture into a custard that coats the cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and seasons the cabbage.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cabbage
Provides the crisp, bulky base that absorbs the warm dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the custard for one minute after it begins to boil. Beaten eggs thicken as they heat, but overcooking can cause them to curdle or scramble, leaving the custard grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the celery

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

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

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