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 ↓
Cabbage Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
Combine cider vinegar, salt, mustard, black pepper, sugar, and butter in a pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Stir in the beaten eggs until the mixture thickens.
Assemble
Pour the dressing over the chopped cabbage.
Garnish with slices of hard-boiled eggs.
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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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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Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,431 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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 absorbs the dressing.
- Cider vinegar
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing.
- Eggs
- Thicken the dressing as their proteins set with gentle heat.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a richer, smoother dressing.
The step that matters
Stir in the beaten eggs until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set at moderate heat. If the eggs go in too fast, or the mixture is too hot, they curdle into lumps instead of thickening the dressing smoothly. Stir constantly while adding them.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, vinegar, mustard, pepper, sugar, butter, egg):
- Horseradishfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cider, vinegar, mustard, pepper, sugar, butter, 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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