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Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage salad made with vinegar, eggs, butter, and milk.

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

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the cabbage very finely and sprinkle with pepper and salt.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter with the vinegar over medium heat.

  2. In a bowl, mix the eggs, milk, and sugar together.

  3. Slowly stir the egg mixture into the heated vinegar.

Finish

  1. Add the sliced cabbage and cook until tender and heated through.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the slaw and becomes tender as it cooks in the sauce.
Eggs
Thicken the sauce as they gently cook, giving it a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and richness of the sauce.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar for a sweet-sour flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Slowly stir the egg mixture into the heated vinegar. Adding cold egg mixture too quickly can scramble the eggs. Stirring slowly while the liquid is warm lets the eggs thicken gently and evenly into a smooth sauce.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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