Name: Cold Slaw
Ingredients: 1 small white cabbage; ¼ cup oil; 1 cup vinegar; 1 teaspoon prepared mustard; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon sugar; ½ teaspoon pepper; 3 tablespoons minced celery (optional)

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Chop or shred the cabbage.
In a bowl, mix the oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, sugar, and pepper.
Pour the dressing over the cabbage.
Add minced celery if desired.
Toss well and serve in a glass bowl.

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 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

White cabbage: Forms the bulk of the slaw and gives it its crisp texture.
Oil: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, vinegar, mustard, sugar, pepper):

Tarragonfits better
Dillfits about as well
Allspicefits about as well
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, mustard, 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.