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Salad

Dressed Cabbage

A vinegar-based dressing with egg, sugar, salt, and butter for cabbage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Dressed Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  2. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar, salt, and butter; heat over medium heat.

  3. Once heated, stir in the beaten egg and cook until it boils.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool.

Serve

  1. Pour the dressing over chopped or shaved cabbage.

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.

  1. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the vinegar mixture into a creamy dressing as it cooks.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the dressing.
Sugar
Balances the acidity with sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook the egg until it boils. Stirring the beaten egg into hot liquid and bringing it to a boil cooks the egg proteins so the dressing thickens. Adding the egg too quickly or not stirring can scramble it, leaving lumps instead of a smooth sauce.

“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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