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Salad

Cabbage Salad

A salad of shredded cabbage dressed with bacon, salt, pepper, onion, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Sprinkle salt over the shredded cabbage and let it stand for 20 minutes to draw out water.

  2. Press the water out of the cabbage.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the hot bacon over the cabbage.

  2. Add pepper, onion, and sugar, then mix thoroughly.

  3. Pour enough vinegar over the mixture to moisten well.

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. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 becomes tender-crisp once salted and pressed.
Salt
Draws water out of the cabbage, softening its texture and seasoning it.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor, and its hot drippings wilt the cabbage slightly.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the salad and moistens the cabbage.

The step that matters

Press the water out of the cabbage. Salting draws water out of the cabbage, and if that water is not pressed away the salad will turn watery and dilute the dressing. Removing it leaves the cabbage crisp and lets the vinegar and bacon fat cling to the shreds.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, sugar, vinegar. 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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