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Salad

Cold Slaw, with Cream Dressing

A chilled cabbage slaw dressed with a custard-like cream made from milk, vinegar, butter, sugar, eggs, celery essence, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cold Slaw, with Cream Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a pot until scalding.

  2. Heat the vinegar in a separate pot until scalding.

  3. In the hot vinegar, combine butter, sugar, and seasoning.

  4. Boil the mixture once.

  5. Add the cabbage to the boiling mixture.

  6. Heat the cabbage until scalding.

  7. Remove the cabbage from heat.

  8. Add the beaten eggs to the hot milk.

  9. Cook the mixture until it begins to thicken.

Dress and cool

  1. Place the hot cabbage in a bowl.

  2. Pour the custard over the cabbage.

  3. Toss and stir with a silver fork.

  4. Cover to retain the vinegar's strength.

  5. Cool quickly.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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 slaw and absorbs the warm dressing as it sits.
Eggs
Thicken the custard dressing when gently heated, giving it a creamy body.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the custard, which coats the cabbage.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the richness of the custard.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar, adding sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until it begins to thicken. Egg proteins set as they heat, thickening the custard. Overheating or boiling after the eggs are added can scramble them, leaving a grainy dressing instead of a smooth one.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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