Name: Cabbage Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup chopped celery; 3 cups finely chopped crisp white cabbage; ½ cup granulated sugar; 2 mangoes, chopped fine; Salt to taste; Salad dressing; Whipped cream; Blanched salted peanuts

Why it works: Celery and cabbage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,840 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine chopped celery, chopped cabbage, granulated sugar, and chopped mangoes.
Add salt to taste and mix in a little salad dressing.
Top with a spoonful of whipped cream and sprinkle with blanched salted peanuts.

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 + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cabbage + peanuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together79 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + mangotop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together54 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peanuttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together148 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Mangoes: Provide the sweet, fruity flavour and juicy moisture that defines the salad.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and draws some moisture out of the cabbage and mango.
Crisp white cabbage: Gives the salad its crunchy, bulky texture.
Whipped cream: Adds richness and a soft, creamy contrast to the crisp vegetables.

Swap the mango

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, cabbage, sugar, cream, peanut):

Limefits better
Coconutfits better
Lemonfits better
Mangothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, cabbage, sugar, cream, peanut. 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.