Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Ra-w Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the cabbage finely and place it in a bowl.
Add the cream, vinegar or lemon juice, and sugar, then mix thoroughly until well combined.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,064 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,037 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raw cabbage
- Provides the crisp, fibrous bulk of the salad.
- Thick sweet cream
- Adds richness and body, coating the cabbage in a creamy dressing.
- Vinegar or lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that offsets the sharpness of the acid.
The step that matters
Mix thoroughly until well combined. Sugar must dissolve and the acid must be evenly distributed through the cream; otherwise some bites taste harsh or cloying and the dressing separates unevenly over the cabbage.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, vinegar, sugar):
- Mustardfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, vinegar, sugar. 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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