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Cole Slaw with Cream

A cabbage slaw dressed with whipped cream, vinegar, pepper, salt, and a pinch of sugar.

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 ↓

Cole Slaw with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into eighths and remove the heart.

  2. Chop the cabbage finely and sprinkle lightly with salt and a pinch of sugar.

  3. Pound the cabbage in a wooden bowl with a potato masher until soft, then drain off the water.

Dress and serve

  1. Dress the cabbage with whipped cream seasoned with vinegar and pepper.

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. Vinegar + peppertop 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 softens when pounded and salted.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a creamy coating that binds the dressing to the cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the cream and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Pound the cabbage until soft, then drain. Salt and pounding draw water out of the cabbage and break down its tough fibers. Draining off that liquid keeps the cream dressing from thinning and the slaw from becoming watery.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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