Name: Cold Slaw
Ingredients: 2 hard-boiled egg yolks; 2 boiled potatoes; 1 tablespoon mustard; 1 teaspoon sugar; 2 tablespoons salad oil or melted butter; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 pint vinegar; cabbage, chopped fine; whites of the eggs for garnish

Why it works: Mustard and cabbage 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 ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

Mash the hard-boiled yolks of the eggs in a bowl.
Add the boiled potatoes, mustard, sugar, salad oil or melted butter, salt, and vinegar. Mix well.

Assemble and garnish

Prepare the chopped cabbage and pour the dressing over it.
Garnish with the chopped whites of the eggs.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together275 recipes

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

Hard-boiled egg yolks: Mashed yolks become a rich, smooth base that thickens the dressing and adds body.
Boiled potatoes: Mashed potato adds body and creaminess, helping the dressing cling to the cabbage.
Mustard: Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Salad oil or melted butter: Fat that gives the dressing a smooth, silky texture and carries flavor.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and offsets the sweetness and richness.
Cabbage: Main vegetable; its crisp texture is coated by the dressing.

Swap the cabbage

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

Horseradishfits better
Chivefits better
Shallotfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, potato, mustard, sugar, butter, 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.