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Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage slaw cooked with salt, water, butter, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Hot Slaw

Why it works: Cabbage and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cabbage into larger pieces than for cold slaw.

  2. Place the cabbage in a pan and sprinkle salt over it.

Cook

  1. Add water and cover the pan tightly.

  2. Cook for 1 hour until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the butter and vinegar to achieve desired sourness.

  2. Serve warm.

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

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

  2. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 becomes tender and sweet as it cooks.
Sweet butter
Adds fat and rich flavor that coats the cabbage and softens its sharpness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the mild sweetness of the cooked cabbage.

The step that matters

Cover the pan tightly while cooking. Covering traps steam so the cabbage cooks gently in its own moisture and water, becoming tender without drying or scorching. A loose lid lets steam escape and can leave the cabbage tough or burnt on the bottom.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar. 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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