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Salad

Cabbage and Celery Salad

A salad of finely cut celery and shredded cabbage tossed with a dressing of salad dressing, salt, mustard, sugar, egg, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 and Celery Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine equal parts of fine cut celery and shredded cabbage in a bowl.

  2. Add 1 cup of salad dressing and mix well.

Make the dressing and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, mix ½ tablespoon of salt, ½ tablespoon of mustard, and 1 cup of sugar.

  2. Stir in the slightly beaten egg and 2½ tablespoons of butter until smooth.

  3. Pour the mixture over the cabbage and celery, and toss to combine.

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. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 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

Cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulky base of the salad.
Celery
Adds crunch and fresh, mild flavor to the salad.
Egg
Thickens and enriches the dressing as it sets with gentle heat.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tang of the dressing.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg and butter until smooth. Beaten egg can scramble or leave lumps if it meets hot or unevenly mixed ingredients. Adding it gradually and stirring until smooth keeps the dressing creamy and evenly blended.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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