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Salad

Sour Cream Slaw

A chilled cabbage slaw dressed with a sour cream and vinegar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Sour Cream Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Select a firm, white head of cabbage; if large, use half.

  2. Slice the cabbage finely and cover with cold water for 1 hour.

  3. Slice the green pepper finely and soak it in cold water with the cabbage.

  4. Drain the cabbage and green pepper, then dry them with a towel.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar. When hot, add the beaten eggs (if using) mixed with the sour cream.

  2. Stir until the mixture thickens, then remove from heat and add salt, pepper, and sugar.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix the cabbage and green pepper with the dressing and serve cold.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulk body of the slaw.
Sour cream
Provides creamy richness and a tangy body for the dressing.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they heat, giving it a smoother body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the dressing.
Sweet green pepper
Adds fresh, mild crunch and sweetness to the slaw.

The step that matters

Stir the dressing until it thickens. Eggs mixed into hot vinegar can curdle or scramble if overheated. Stirring gently over heat and removing it once thickened keeps the dressing smooth and creamy.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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

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