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Salad

Cold Chili

A chilled salad of finely chopped tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, onions, seasoned with salt, pepper, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cold Chili

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, and onions very finely.

  2. Combine the chopped vegetables in a bowl.

Season and serve

  1. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Pour vinegar over the mixture to taste.

  3. Mix well and serve chilled.

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

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Tomatoes
Add moisture and body, with a mild acidity that suits the chili flavor.
Cabbage
Adds crisp texture and bulk that holds up well when served cold.
Peppers
Add crunch and the main chili flavor, which stays fresh when raw.
Onions
Add sharpness and aroma that mellow as the mixture rests.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the vegetables and balances the salt.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, onion, vinegar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, onion, vinegar. 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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