Name: Cold Slaw
Ingredients: 1 egg; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 teaspoon butter; ½ teaspoon mustard; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons sugar; ½ cup cream or 1 cup milk; 2 teaspoons flour; a good shake of red 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

In a saucepan, combine vinegar and butter, and heat until melted.
Add the egg, mustard, salt, sugar, cream (or milk), flour, and red pepper.
Stir continuously until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and let cool 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.

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).
Butter + creamtop 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).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, vinegar, butter, sugar, cream, flour, pepper):

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Shallotfits about as well
Chivefits about as well

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