Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the salad
Chop the cabbage with a sharp knife.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, mix the oil, vinegar, salt, sugar, mustard, and pepper, adding the vinegar last and mixing well.
Beat the raw egg until light and incorporate it into the dressing.
Dress and serve
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss with a fork.
Serve in a glass dish.
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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Firm white cabbage
- Forms the crisp, bulky body of the salad.
- Oil
- Adds fat and smooth richness to the dressing, carrying flavour across the leaves.
- Vinegar
- Provides acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the sweetness.
- Raw egg
- Beaten into the dressing to thicken it and help it cling to the cabbage.
- Made mustard
- Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar.
The step that matters
Beat the raw egg until light and incorporate it into the dressing. Beating the egg incorporates air and lets it blend evenly into the oil and vinegar. Poorly mixed egg can leave streaks or pockets of raw egg in the dressing, so it should be fully combined before pouring.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, egg):
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, mustard, 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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