Name: Cabbage Salad
Ingredients: 1 quart cabbage, sliced; 1-2 teaspoons mustard; 1-2 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons sugar; 4 tablespoons whipped cream; 4 tablespoons vinegar

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard 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 ↓

Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a large bowl, combine the sliced cabbage.
In a separate bowl, mix the mustard, coarse sea salt, sugar, whipped cream, and vinegar.

Assemble and serve

Pour the dressing over the cabbage and toss to combine.
Serve immediately.

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.

Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 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).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the crisp, bulky body of the salad.
Whipped cream: Adds richness and a creamy coating to the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sugar.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that offsets the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavor to the dressing.