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Salad

Cold Slaw

A chilled cabbage salad dressed with a butter, egg yolk, vinegar, and pepper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cold Slaw

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 the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine egg yolks, butter, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

  2. If using a lot of cabbage, add cream.

  3. Stir the mixture constantly over low heat until just before boiling.

Dress and rest

  1. Place the cut cabbage in a serving dish.

  2. Pour the mixture over the cabbage and mix thoroughly.

  3. Sift white pepper on top and let it sit for several hours before serving.

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.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 dish and provides the crisp, fresh body the dressing coats.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the butter and set into a thick, smooth, creamy dressing when gently heated.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that smooths the dressing and carries flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.

The step that matters

Stir the dressing over low heat. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the heat is too high or the mixture is left unstirred, they can scramble and turn grainy. Constant stirring over low heat keeps the dressing smooth, stopping just before it boils.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, pepper, 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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