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Cold Slaw II

A chilled cabbage slaw seasoned with pepper, salt, sugar, vinegar, and dressed with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cold Slaw II

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely shred the cabbage.

  2. Season with black pepper, coarse sea salt, and sugar.

  3. Add vinegar to moisten the cabbage and pour off any excess liquid.

Dress and serve

  1. Stir in whipped cream to dress the slaw.

  2. Toss with a fork and serve.

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

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

  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. Sugar + vinegartop 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 provides its crisp, crunchy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and moistens the shredded cabbage.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and creaminess that coats the cabbage and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Pour off excess liquid after adding vinegar. Salt, sugar and vinegar draw water out of cabbage. If the liquid is not drained, the slaw becomes watery and the whipped cream thins and dilutes instead of coating the cabbage.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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