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Salad

Cold Slaw

A chilled salad of shredded cabbage dressed with oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, sugar, pepper, and optional celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cold Slaw

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop or shred the cabbage and place it in a bowl.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, sugar, and pepper.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and add minced celery if desired.

  2. Toss well to combine and serve in a glass bowl.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the salad and provides its crisp, crunchy texture.
Vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that gives the slaw its tangy flavour.
Oil
Carries flavour through the dressing and gives the slaw a smoother mouthfeel.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Toss well to combine. Salt and vinegar draw moisture out of cabbage, so tossing evenly coats every piece and seasons it uniformly. Letting the dressing sit unevenly leaves some shreds bland and others soggy.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, vinegar, mustard, sugar, pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, mustard, sugar, 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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