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Salad

Cabbage Salad

A cabbage salad dressed with a butter and flour-based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the cabbage and celery finely and soak in cold water.

  2. Drain the cabbage and celery, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and sugar to taste.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, rub together the butter and flour.

  2. Add the eggs, mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little sugar to the mixture.

  3. Cook the dressing until thick.

Assemble

  1. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and mix well.

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.

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.

  1. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the salad and carries the dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the dressing a smooth, rounded texture.
Flour
Thickens the dressing when cooked, giving it body.
Eggs
Set when cooked, thickening and enriching the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp tang.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until thick. Egg proteins set with heat and flour starch thickens as it cooks. Stop too early and the dressing stays thin; cook too long or too hot and the eggs can scramble and turn grainy.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, pepper, sugar, butter, flour, egg, mustard):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, sugar, butter, flour, egg, mustard. 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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