Name: Celery Slaw
Ingredients: ½ head of cabbage, chopped fine; 1 bunch of celery, chopped fine; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine; 2 teaspoons sugar; 2 teaspoons mustard; ½ teaspoon pepper; ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); Vinegar, to moisten

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Celery Slaw

Ingredients

½ head of cabbage, chopped fine
1 bunch of celery, chopped fine
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons mustard
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
Vinegar, to moisten

Directions

Chop the cabbage, celery, and hard-boiled eggs finely.
In a bowl, mix the chopped vegetables and eggs with sugar, mustard, pepper, and salt.
Moisten the mixture with vinegar to your taste.

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.

Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 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 crisp, bulky body of the slaw.
Celery: Adds crunch and a fresh, savoury flavour.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add richness and a soft texture to the mixture.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the sweetness.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the slaw and moistens it.

Swap the celery

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

Tarragonfits better
Dillfits better
Capersfits about as well
Celerythe original

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