Name: Shredded Cabbage with Cream Sauce
Ingredients: 1 small head of cabbage; 1 egg; ½ cup vinegar; 2 teaspoons granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon mixed mustard; 2 ounces butter; ¼ teaspoon salt

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 ↓

Shredded Cabbage with Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Slice the cabbage with a sharp knife and place it in a dish.

Make the cream sauce

In a saucepan, combine the egg, vinegar, sugar, mustard, butter, and salt.
Stir constantly over low heat until the sauce thickens, but do not let it boil.

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).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a crisp, shredded texture.
Egg: Its proteins set as they heat, thickening the sauce into a creamy consistency.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that gives the sauce a sharp flavour and cuts through the richness of the butter.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter: Adds fat, which gives the sauce richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat without boiling. Egg proteins set at a gentle heat. If the sauce gets too hot or boils, the egg can scramble and curdle, leaving the sauce grainy instead of smoothly thickened.

Swap the cabbage

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

Horseradishfits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, sugar, mustard, 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.

Red Cabbage65 recipes

Stewed Cabbage58 recipes

Baked Cabbage51 recipes

Cabbage Dressing19 recipes

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Shredded Cabbage with Cream Sauce