Why it works: Cabbage and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,839 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4 - 6Ingredients
Contains: peanut, soy, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Finely shred the Chinese cabbage and white cabbage, then put them in a large bowl.
Slice the celery sticks thinly on an angle and cut the carrots into thin matchsticks. Add them to the bowl with the cabbage.
Chop the mint and coriander, and roughly chop the peanuts if they are not already chopped.
Make the dressing: in a small bowl, stir the crushed garlic, caster sugar, rice vinegar, lime juice and fish sauce until the sugar dissolves.
Add the sliced red chillies to the dressing, adjusting the number to your heat preference.
Pour about two-thirds of the dressing over the vegetables and toss well so every piece is coated.
Add the chopped mint and coriander and toss again.
Gently fold in the cooked prawns, patting them dry first if they are wet.
Divide among plates or pile onto a platter, scatter with the chopped peanuts, and drizzle with the remaining dressing. Serve straight away while crisp.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cabbage + celerytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,839 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Mint + coriandertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together940 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Coriander + garlictop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,477 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Carrot + coriandertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,296 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, celery, carrot, coriander, peanut, garlic, sugar):
- Gingerbetter flavor fit
- Cuminbetter flavor fit
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, celery, carrot, coriander, peanut, garlic, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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