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Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage slaw seasoned with vinegar, mustard, egg, pepper, salt, and thick cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Hot Slaw

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 ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Shave the cabbage finely and place it in a saucepan.

  2. Barely cover the cabbage with vinegar and cook until tender.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg and mix in the prepared mustard.

  2. Add pepper and salt to the egg mixture.

Combine and serve

  1. Remove the cabbage from the heat and stir in the egg mixture and thick cream.

  2. Serve warm.

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

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

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

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

  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

Cabbage
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender when cooked in vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the slaw its sharp, tangy flavour.
Egg
Thickens the dressing as it gently cooks in the warm cabbage, giving a creamy texture.
Thick cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that complements the vinegar and egg.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture into the cabbage off the heat. If the cabbage is still on the heat, the egg can overheat and scramble rather than thickening smoothly into a creamy dressing. Removing the pan first lets the egg thicken gently from residual warmth.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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