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Cabbage Slaw

A cabbage slaw dressed with a mixture of eggs, butter, condensed milk, vinegar, and boiling water.

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 ↓

Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Chop the cabbage finely.

  2. Mix the chopped cabbage with salt.

  3. Squeeze out the water thoroughly with your hands.

  4. Pour vinegar over the cabbage.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat together eggs, butter, condensed milk, and pepper.

  2. Add boiling water.

  3. Cook for 5 minutes.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the cabbage.

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

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk and crisp texture of the slaw.
Eggs
Bind the dressing and thicken it as they cook, adding richness.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich, smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Condensed milk
Adds sweetness and creaminess to balance the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the cabbage and cuts the richness.

The step that matters

Squeeze out the water thoroughly. Excess water left in the chopped cabbage dilutes the dressing and makes the slaw soggy and watery. Removing it well keeps the dressing thick and clinging to the cabbage.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, butter, condensed milk, 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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