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Salad

Cabbage Salad

A salad of shredded cabbage dressed with vinegar, butter, sugar, and sour cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine shredded cabbage, salt, pepper, vinegar, melted butter, and sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture, then pour it hot over the shredded cabbage and cover.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in the sour cream lightly with a fork.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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 provides its crisp, fresh texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and rounds out the sharpness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens the sharp edge of the vinegar.
Sour cream
Adds creaminess and a tangy richness to coat the cabbage.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture hot over the cabbage and cover. Hot liquid softens the cabbage slightly and lets it absorb the dressing; cold dressing would leave the cabbage crisp and less flavorful. Covering keeps the heat and aroma in during this soaking.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, butter, sugar, cream):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, butter, sugar, 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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