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Salad

Cream Slaw

A chilled cabbage slaw mixed with sweet cream, sugar, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Finely chop the cabbage.

  2. In a bowl, combine the cabbage, cream, and sugar.

  3. Beat the mixture with a fork until light and foamy.

  4. Add vinegar to taste and a little salt, then beat again.

  5. Ensure the cabbage, cream, and vinegar are very cold before using.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Provides the crisp, fresh body that the dressing coats.
Thick sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, and whipping it lightly gives the dressing a light, airy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tang of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity, giving the slaw its sharp, bright flavour.

The step that matters

Beat the cream lightly until just foamy. Cold cream whips more readily and holds air better, so keeping the ingredients very cold helps it stay light. Beating too long can overwork the cream, making it grainy or turning it toward butter.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, vinegar. 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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