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Cabbage Slaw

A cabbage salad mixed with milk, egg, vinegar, butter, salt, pepper, and optional mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped cabbage, milk, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add mustard if desired.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and mix in the vinegar.

  4. Melt the butter in a pan and add the egg and vinegar mixture.

  5. Cook gently until slightly thickened, then pour over the cabbage mixture and toss to combine.

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

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

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the warm vinegar mixture into a creamy, lightly set dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the egg and butter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing as it melts into the egg and vinegar mixture.
Milk
Adds moisture and mildness to the cabbage.

The step that matters

Cook gently until slightly thickened. Egg proteins set at moderate heat, so cooking slowly keeps the mixture smooth. High heat can scramble the egg and make the dressing grainy.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, milk, pepper, egg, vinegar, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Cauliflowerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, milk, pepper, egg, vinegar, butter. 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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