Skip to main content
Main

Cold Slaw

A chilled cabbage slaw thickened with a mustard, sugar, and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Cold 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 ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix salt, mustard, cayenne, and sugar until well blended.

  2. Add the unbeaten egg and mix thoroughly.

  3. Pour in the hot milk.

  4. Add the heated vinegar and butter.

  5. Cook over hot water until thickened, stirring constantly.

  6. If the mixture curdles, place the upper part of the double boiler in cold water.

  7. Beat with an egg beater until smooth.

Finish

  1. Strain the mixture over the shaved cabbage.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks and gives it a smooth, creamy body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the sharp bite of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the slaw its tangy flavor.
Milk
Dilutes the dressing and adds creaminess along with the egg.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the slaw and absorbs the dressing.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing over hot water. Egg proteins set gently with steady, moderate heat. If the mixture gets too hot it curdles, so stir constantly and cool the pan in cold water if curdling starts.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, sugar, egg, milk, butter, 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.

More cold slaw recipes

Dressing 49 See all 157 →

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes