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Salad

Cabbage and Celery

A salad of shredded cabbage and diced celery dressed with a vinegar, egg, mustard, olive oil, and optional sugar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 and Celery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shred the cabbage very fine and dice the celery.

  2. Mix the cabbage and celery together, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the vinegar and beaten egg.

  2. Stir over medium heat until thickened like cream.

  3. Add the mustard, olive oil, and sugar, then mix well.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool, then pour it over the cabbage and celery.

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 provides crisp texture.
Egg
Thickens the vinegar mixture into a creamy dressing when gently heated.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that balances the dressing and sharpens the flavor.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Stir the vinegar and egg over medium heat until thickened. Egg proteins set as they heat, thickening the dressing. If the heat is too high or the mixture is left unstirred, the egg can scramble and the dressing turns lumpy instead of smooth and creamy.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, vinegar, egg, mustard, olive, sugar. 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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