Skip to main content
Main

Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage slaw cooked with butter, water, and seasoned with egg, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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

Cook the cabbage

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

  2. Add the minced cabbage, boiling water, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover and cook until the cabbage is tender and the water has evaporated.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the beaten egg, vinegar, and sugar.

  2. Pour the mixture over the cabbage and stir briefly.

  3. 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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 down in the covered skillet.
Egg
Thickens the vinegar mixture slightly when it is combined with the hot cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the butter and the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cabbage as it begins to cook.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture over the cabbage and stir briefly. The beaten egg can curdle or scramble if it meets very hot liquid for too long. Stirring only briefly, once the mixture is added, keeps the egg smooth and evenly blended into the sauce.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, 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.

More hot slaw recipes

Dressing 3 See all 87 →

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes