Why it works: Mustard and cabbage 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 ↓
Cold Slaw
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
Boil the vinegar with sugar, salt, mustard, and pepper.
Rub the butter with flour to a cream and pour the boiling vinegar mixture over it.
Cook for 5 minutes, then pour it over the beaten egg.
Dress the cabbage
Mix the hot dressing with the cabbage.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Vinegar
- Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sugar and gives the slaw its tang.
- Egg
- Thickens the dressing as it cooks, giving it a creamy, body-rich texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, softening the sharpness of the vinegar in the dressing.
- Flour
- Works with the butter to thicken the dressing so it coats the cabbage.
- Cabbage
- Forms the bulk of the slaw and absorbs the warm dressing, softening slightly.
The step that matters
Cooking the egg into the dressing. Egg proteins set when heated, so pouring the hot mixture over the beaten egg while stirring gently and cooking it through thickens the dressing smoothly. Overheating can curdle it into lumps.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, butter, flour, egg):
- Shallotfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Chivefits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, butter, flour, egg. 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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