Name: Cream Dressing- for Cold Slaw
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons whipped sweet cream; 2 tablespoons sugar; 4 tablespoons vinegar; Cabbage, finely cut; Coarse sea salt

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Dressing- for Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

In a bowl, combine whipped sweet cream, sugar, and vinegar.
Beat the mixture well until smooth.

Dress the slaw

Pour the dressing over finely cut cabbage seasoned with coarse sea salt.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Vinegar + cabbagetop 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).
Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,064 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar + cabbagetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,037 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Whipped sweet cream: Provides richness and a creamy body that coats the cabbage.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and cuts the richness of the cream.
Cabbage: Forms the main body of the slaw that the dressing coats.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture until smooth. Cream can thicken or separate if it is over-whipped or combined with acid unevenly, so beating until smooth keeps the dressing uniform and pourable.

Swap the cabbage

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

Mustardfits better
Horseradishfits better
Capsicumfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, 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.

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Cream Dressing- for Cold Slaw