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
Soak the cabbage in cold water to make it crisp, then dry it well and shave it as finely as possible.
Make the dressing
In a bowl, rub together the butter and flour.
Stir in the vinegar and scald the mixture for one minute.
Add the beaten egg yolk and cream, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
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.
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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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Enriches the dressing and gives it a smooth, rich body.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter mixture so the dressing can coat the cabbage.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps bind the dressing into a creamy sauce.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the dressing.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and softens the dressing's sharpness.
The step that matters
Scalding the vinegar mixture. Heating the butter, flour and vinegar for one minute cooks the flour so it thickens. The egg yolk is added afterwards, so the mixture should be hot but not boiling hard, to avoid scrambling the yolk.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, walnut, flour, vinegar, egg, cream, pepper):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, walnut, flour, vinegar, egg, cream, pepper. 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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