Name: Cold Slaw
Ingredients: cabbage; hard-boiled eggs; vinegar; mustard; coarse sea salt; cayenne pepper; olive oil (optional); celery seeds; 2 teaspoons sugar

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 ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Finely chop the cabbage.
Hard boil the eggs.
Mash the yolks while hot in a bowl with vinegar.
Mix in mustard, coarse sea salt, cayenne pepper, and olive oil if desired.

Make the slaw

Add celery seeds and sugar, then stir in the chopped cabbage.
Add more vinegar if needed to moisten the slaw.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,169 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

Cabbage: Forms the bulk of the slaw and provides crisp texture.
Hard-boiled eggs: Yolks mashed with vinegar form a creamy dressing base that adds richness.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and softens the cabbage slightly.
Mustard: Adds sharp flavor and helps emulsify the creamy dressing.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.

Swap the cabbage

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

Capsicumfits better
Lettucefits better
Horseradishfits better
Cabbagethe original

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