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Hot Slaw

A cabbage slaw cooked with vinegar, butter, sugar, pepper, salt, and flour, served hot.

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

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Boil the cabbage in two waters until tender.

  2. Drain and chop the cabbage quickly, pressing out all the water.

  3. Place the cabbage in a deep dish.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar, butter, sugar, pepper, and salt.

  2. When scalding, add the flour mixed with a little water.

  3. Boil for one minute and pour over the cabbage.

  4. If available, use celery vinegar for the dressing.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour 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
Is the main vegetable, becoming tender when boiled and then absorbing the dressing.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the slaw its tangy flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the warm dressing.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Flour
Thickens the hot dressing so it coats the cabbage.

The step that matters

Pressing out the water after boiling the cabbage. Excess water dilutes the dressing and stops the cabbage from absorbing it well, so the slaw can taste watery. Draining and pressing the cabbage thoroughly keeps the dressing concentrated and clinging.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, sugar, pepper, flour. 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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