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Cabbage

A cabbage salad dressed with a vinegar and egg butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Chop the cabbages, removing the core and coarse parts of the leaves.

  2. Sprinkle with salt, black pepper, dry mustard, and celery salt to taste.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the butter until melted, then add the vinegar and beaten eggs.

  2. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens slightly.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the hot dressing over the cabbage and mix thoroughly.

  2. Let it cool 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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

Cabbages
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its crisp, fresh texture.
Eggs
Thicken the hot dressing as they cook and give it a rich, creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the butter and eggs.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dressing, giving it a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the dressing continuously while it thickens. Egg proteins set when heated, so if the mixture gets too hot or is left unstirred, the eggs can scramble into lumps instead of forming a smooth, slightly thickened dressing.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, mustard, vinegar, egg, butter. 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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