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Salad

Southern Cold Slaw

A cold cabbage salad with vinegar, butter, and egg yolk dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and cabbage 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 ↓

Southern Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar and water until boiling.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with mustard, salt, sugar, and pepper.

  3. Work the butter into the egg mixture.

  4. Once the vinegar and water are boiling, stir in the egg mixture.

Dress and serve

  1. Add the sliced cabbage and mix well.

  2. Remove from heat before the cabbage wilts.

  3. Pour into a salad bowl and stir in the cream when partially cool.

  4. Serve cold.

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. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that defines the slaw's tangy flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm dressing into a creamy, emulsified sauce as they set gently.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the dressing.
Cream
Adds richness and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the slaw, absorbing the dressing while keeping a crisp bite.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the boiling vinegar and water. Egg yolks scramble if they meet very hot liquid too abruptly. Adding the mixture while the liquid is boiling and stirring steadily, then removing from heat promptly, lets the yolks thicken smoothly into a sauce rather than curdling.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, cream, butter, mustard, sugar, pepper, 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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