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Salad

Hot Slaw

A slaw of finely shaved cabbage dressed in a hot egg yolk and vinegar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Hot Slaw

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Finely shave the cabbage using a sharp knife.

  2. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, cold water, butter, vinegar, onion juice, salt, mustard, and pepper.

  3. Stir the mixture over hot water until it thickens to a cream-like consistency.

  4. Add the dressing to the cabbage and heat through.

  5. Sift the salt, pepper, and mustard before adding to the sauce.

  6. If desired, stir in the sugar.

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 + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 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

Cabbage
Forms the main bulk of the dish and wilts slightly when the warm dressing is added.
Egg yolks
Their proteins thicken with gentle heat, giving the dressing a creamy, cohesive body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.

The step that matters

Stir the dressing over hot water until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat, but too much heat makes them scramble and curdle. Keep the water hot rather than boiling and stir constantly for a smooth cream.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

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