Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the cabbage very finely and place it in a dish.
Mix the sugar and lemon juice together, then pour over the cabbage.
Add the thick cream if desired, stir well, and serve.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cabbage + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together397 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,640 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).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage
- Forms the crisp, bulky body of the salad.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and sharpens the cabbage.
- Thick cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the salad.
The step that matters
Pour the sugar and lemon mixture over the cabbage. Sugar and acid draw moisture out of finely chopped cabbage, softening it and releasing liquid. Dressing it shortly before serving keeps the salad crisper and prevents it from becoming watery.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, cream):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cream. 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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