Name: Cabbage Salad with Dressing
Ingredients: ½ head of cabbage, finely chopped; 1 small onion, finely chopped; Salt and pepper, to taste; 2 large eggs; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; 2 tablespoons vinegar

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 with Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

Combine the chopped cabbage and onion in a large bowl.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Make the dressing

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, butter, flour, and vinegar in a separate bowl.
Place the bowl over boiling water and stir until the mixture thickens to a creamy consistency.

Combine

Pour the dressing over the cabbage and onion mixture, and toss to combine.

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.

Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,001 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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

Eggs: Thicken the dressing and add richness as they set when heated.
Flour: Helps stabilise the dressing so it becomes thick and creamy when heated.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sugar.
Sugar: Sweetens the dressing and offsets the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter: Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel in the dressing.
Cabbage: Forms the crisp, bulky base of the salad.

The step that matters

Thickening the dressing over boiling water. Egg proteins set gradually as they warm, so the mixture must be heated gently and stirred constantly. Overheating or leaving it still can curdle the eggs, leaving the dressing grainy instead of smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

Mustardfits better
Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, egg, sugar, butter, flour, 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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Cabbage Salad with Dressing