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Salad

Cabbage and Celery Salad

A salad of chopped cabbage and celery dressed with a creamy vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbage and Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage and celery, using a small amount of celery for flavor.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, and sugar, then pack into serving dishes.

Dress and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the cream and vinegar with the beaten egg until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture over the cabbage.

  3. The vinegar will settle, leaving a creamy foam on top.

  4. Garnish with celery tops before serving.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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 bulk of the salad and provides crisp texture.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a creamy body to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that balances the rich cream.
Beaten egg
Helps emulsify and thicken the cream dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to offset the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Mixing the cream, vinegar and egg. Cream and vinegar can curdle or separate if combined carelessly, and the egg helps hold the dressing together. Mixing until well combined gives a smooth, uniform dressing that coats the cabbage evenly.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, sugar, cream, vinegar, 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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