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Salad

Cream Slaw

A cabbage salad with egg yolks, sugar, vinegar, cream, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

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

Cream Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, beat together the finely chopped cabbage, egg yolks, and sugar.

  2. Add the vinegar and boil the mixture for three minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let it stand for about two minutes.

  4. Stir in the cream or milk, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour it over the chopped cabbage.

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

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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 keeps a crisp texture under the dressing.
Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they heat and add richness and body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its tang.
Cream or rich sweet milk
Adds moisture and softness, mellowing the dressing.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Bringing the egg yolk mixture to a boil. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can make them scramble or curdle, leaving a grainy dressing. Keep the heat controlled and stir so the mixture thickens smoothly before it is poured over the cabbage.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, vinegar, cream, walnut, butter, pepper. 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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