Name: Creamed Cabbage Salad
Ingredients: 3 cups finely shredded cabbage; 1 cup finely chopped celery; 2 hard cooked eggs, cut in small pieces; 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped; 3 tablespoons sugar; ½ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon white pepper; ⅓ cup vinegar; 1 cup thick sweet cream

Why it works: Cabbage and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,840 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine cabbage, celery, eggs, onion, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar, then stir well to mix all ingredients.
Add the cream last and mix gently.
Serve on a lettuce leaf.

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 + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,840 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Thick sweet cream: Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture that coats the vegetables.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Sugar: Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds sweetness.
Hard cooked eggs: Add body and a soft, rich texture to the salad.

The step that matters

Add the cream last and mix gently. Cream is a fat emulsion that can thin or turn grainy if overworked, and vigorous mixing with the acidic vinegar and vegetables can break it down. Folding gently keeps it thick and smooth.

Swap the white pepper

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

Tarragonfits better
Garlicfits better
Dillfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, celery, egg, onion, sugar, vinegar, cream. 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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Creamed Cabbage Salad