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Hot Slaw

A cabbage salad cooked with butter, water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 and cook

  1. Mince or slice the cabbage finely.

  2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.

  3. Add the cabbage, boiling water, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook until tender and dry.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the vinegar and sugar until well combined.

  2. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cabbage just before serving. Stir briefly and serve hot.

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

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 softens as it cooks, becoming tender.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the cabbage cook in a glossy, flavourful coating.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the butter.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the vinegar mixture. Pour it over the cabbage just before serving. Acid added early can change the texture and colour of cabbage during cooking, and the sharp flavour is best fresh and hot.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

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