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Hot Slaw

A hot cabbage slaw with bacon, flour, vinegar, water, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Hot Slaw

Why it works: Cabbage and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a frying pan, cook the diced bacon until browned.

  2. Stir in the flour until smooth.

  3. Add the water and vinegar, cooking until thickened like gravy.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix in the chopped cabbage and heat until hot.

  2. Serve in a vegetable dish and pour the cream over before serving.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together978 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon
Renders fat for frying and adds savory, smoky flavor to the dressing.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the bacon fat and liquid into a smooth, gravy-like dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the slaw its sharp, tangy flavor.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and softens slightly as it heats in the dressing.
Cream
Adds richness and mellows the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Add the water and vinegar, cooking until thickened like gravy. Flour needs to cook in the hot fat and liquid long enough to swell and thicken; undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin sauce.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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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