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Cold Slaw

A chilled cabbage salad dressed with a creamy egg and vinegar sauce.

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

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add cream, vinegar, celery seed, salt, pepper, and butter; mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and stir over medium heat until it boils.

Assemble and serve

  1. Finely chop the cabbage and pour the hot mixture over it.

  2. Let the slaw stand until cold before serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + cabbagetop 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the cooked dressing into a smooth, creamy sauce as they set with heat.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the dressing a smooth, mellow body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the cream.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, glossier texture in the cooked dressing.
Cabbage
Forms the body of the slaw, softening slightly as the hot dressing is poured over it.

The step that matters

Stir the dressing over medium heat until it boils. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating or curdling can make the dressing grainy. Stirring constantly over steady medium heat lets the yolks thicken evenly before the mixture boils.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, vinegar, celery, pepper, butter. 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.

More cold slaw recipes

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