Name: Cold Slaw
Ingredients: 3 eggs; ½ cup cream; ⅓ cup vinegar; 2 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon mustard; a pinch of cayenne pepper

Why it works: Vinegar and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Beat the eggs until very light.
In a saucepan, combine the eggs, cream, vinegar, butter, and salt.
Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and let it cool.
Once cool, stir in the mustard and cayenne pepper.
Pour the dressing over the slaw and toss lightly.

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.

Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Potatofits about as well
Mustardthe original
Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, vinegar, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.