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Salad

Dixie Cold Slaw

A cold cabbage slaw mixed with eggs, sugar, mustard, butter, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dixie Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat together the cabbage, eggs, sugar, mustard, and butter.

  2. Boil the vinegar in a pot.

  3. Once hot, pour the vinegar into the egg mixture and stir until smooth.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the cabbage and let it sit for a few minutes.

  2. Remove from heat 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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  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 main body of the slaw and provides crisp texture.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing as they warm, adding body and richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that complements the vinegar.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and tang that defines the dressing's flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the hot vinegar into the egg mixture gradually. Hot liquid can scramble eggs if added too quickly. Pouring slowly while stirring warms the eggs gently, so the dressing becomes smooth and thick instead of lumpy.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, mustard, 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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