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Salad

Mother R's Cold Slaw

A chilled cabbage salad dressed with a thickened butter, flour, and vinegar mixture.

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

Mother R's Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Soak the cabbage in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Drain the cabbage.

  3. Shred or chop the cabbage.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, mix flour and butter.

  2. Add milk, vinegar, salt, sugar, mustard, and cayenne.

  3. Heat the mixture until it thickens.

  4. Stir in the egg yolks rapidly.

Dress and serve

  1. In a tureen, combine the cabbage with the dressing.

  2. Pour the dressing over the cabbage.

  3. Cover closely.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 slaw and provides its crisp, crunchy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set with heat and help it become smooth and creamy.
Flour
Thickens the dressing as its starch swells and gelatinizes when heated with liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the dressing.
Vinegar
Supplies the sharp acidity that gives the slaw its tang.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard with sweetness.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks rapidly. Egg yolk proteins set at moderate heat and can scramble into lumps if they meet hot liquid too fast or sit still. Stirring briskly while adding them disperses the yolk evenly and keeps the dressing smooth.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, vinegar, sugar, mustard, egg. 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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