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Cabbage Salad with Cream, American Style

A chilled cabbage salad dressed with a creamy sauce made from egg yolks, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 with Cream, American Style

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Bring the white wine vinegar to a boil in a saucepan.

  2. Add the butter, salt, pepper, and powdered sugar.

  3. Stir in the cabbage.

  4. Heat the cabbage thoroughly.

  5. Transfer the cabbage to an earthen bowl.

Make the cream

  1. Dilute the egg yolks in cold milk.

  2. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Add the strained mixture to the boiling milk while stirring.

  4. Remove the mixture from heat.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the mixture over the cabbage, mixing well.

  2. Cover the bowl.

  3. Refrigerate until cold.

  4. Transfer the salad to a salad bowl.

  5. Shape as desired.

  6. Garnish with beets and quartered hard-boiled eggs.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they set gently with heat, giving it a smooth body.
Milk
Forms the base of the cream and dilutes the yolks for a smooth, rich texture.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the cabbage and balances the richness of the cream.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour of the cabbage.

The step that matters

Add the strained mixture to the boiling milk while stirring. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Constant stirring and gradual blending keep the cream smooth and thickened.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, butter, pepper, sugar, egg, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, butter, pepper, sugar, egg, milk. 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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