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Dressing for Cabbage

A vinaigrette-style dressing made with vinegar, butter, mustard, and egg, tossed with shredded cabbage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Dressing for Cabbage

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 ↓

Dressing for Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle the shredded cabbage with salt and pepper.

  2. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, butter, and mustard; bring to a boil.

Make the dressing

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the beaten egg, stirring quickly.

  2. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook until slightly thickened.

  3. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and toss lightly with a fork.

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.

  1. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  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 dish and gives a crisp texture that the dressing coats.
Egg
Thickens the dressing as its proteins set during gentle cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tangy bite.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the dressing richer and smoother.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, savory flavor that balances the vinegar.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot mixture over the egg. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding the hot liquid slowly while stirring quickly tempers the egg. This keeps it from scrambling and lets the dressing thicken smoothly.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, butter, mustard, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, butter, mustard, 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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