Why it works: Cabbage and mustard 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 ↓
Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the cooked chicken, cabbage, and hard-boiled eggs finely.
Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and mustard to taste.
Make the dressing
Warm the vinegar in a saucepan.
Add the butter to the warm vinegar and stir until melted.
Pour the hot mixture over the salad and stir thoroughly.
Cool
Set the salad aside to cool.
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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Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,192 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Provides acidity that gives the salad its tangy flavour.
- Eggs
- Add body and richness to the salad as they are chopped through the mixture.
The step that matters
Pour the hot mixture over the salad and stir thoroughly. The hot vinegar and butter must be spread evenly so every piece of chicken, cabbage and egg is seasoned and coated. Uneven mixing leaves pockets that are sharp or greasy.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, pepper, mustard, vinegar, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, pepper, mustard, vinegar, butter. 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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