Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cole Slaw
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dressing
Boil ½ pt. of vinegar with a piece of butter about the size of a walnut.
Beat the yolks of 4 eggs and add ½ teacup of cream.
Take the vinegar from the fire and stir the eggs and cream into it while it is hot, taking care it does not curdle.
Put the mixture over the fire again to cook it, stirring it always until it is the thickness of boiled custard.
Add salt to the dressing to taste.
Dress and serve
Shred the cabbage finely in a dish.
Pour the hot dressing over the cabbage.
Mix the dressing well through the cabbage.
When the mixture is cold, put it into the serving dish.
Sprinkle with cayenne pepper.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Walnut | 1 walnut half (4g) | 26 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,832 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Walnut + creamtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
-
Walnut + eggtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the dressing into a custard-like texture as they cook gently.
- Cream
- Adds richness and softness, giving the dressing a smoother, milder body.
- Vinegar (in the method)
- Provides the sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the egg and cream.
- Butter
- Adds fat and a rounded, mellow flavour to the dressing.
The step that matters
Stirring the eggs into the hot vinegar. Egg yolks curdle if they get too hot too fast. Adding them to hot vinegar off the heat and stirring constantly, then cooking gently, keeps the dressing smooth and thickened.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Pecansfits better
- Filbertfits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, 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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