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Salad

Cold-slaw

A chilled cabbage salad dressed with a hot cream or milk and vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cold-slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage and place it in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the cream or milk over medium heat until near boiling.

  2. Add the vinegar, pepper, and salt to the hot cream or milk.

  3. Once it boils, remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg.

  4. Pour the hot mixture over the chopped cabbage and stir thoroughly.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 absorbs the warm dressing as it sits.
Cream or rich milk
Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a smooth, creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the slaw its tangy flavor.
Egg
Thickens the hot cream mixture as it cooks, helping it coat the cabbage.

The step that matters

Stir the egg in off the heat. Egg proteins set at high heat and can curdle or scramble if the mixture is kept boiling after the egg goes in. Removing the pan from heat before adding the beaten egg lets it thicken gently and stay smooth.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, vinegar, pepper, egg. 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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