Name: Cold Slaw
Ingredients: ½ head medium-sized cabbage, chopped fine; ½ cup thick sour cream, well beaten; 1 teaspoon salt; 3 tablespoons sugar; ⅓ cup vinegar

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

½ head medium-sized cabbage, chopped fine
½ cup thick sour cream, well beaten
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
⅓ cup vinegar

Directions

In a bowl, mix the chopped cabbage, sour cream, salt, sugar, and vinegar together.
Pour the mixture over the cabbage and mix thoroughly.

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.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,064 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,037 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the crisp, bulky body of the slaw.
Sour cream: Adds creaminess and richness that coats the cabbage.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and softens the cabbage slightly.