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Salad

Grandma Nelson's Hot Slaw

A hot cabbage slaw flavored with vinegar, pepper, salt, mustard, and meat drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Grandma Nelson's Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine chopped cabbage with vinegar, pepper, salt, and mustard in a crock. Add enough meat drippings to make the mixture greasy.

  2. Place the crock on the back of the stove and heat until steaming hot, but not boiling.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. 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. Pepper + mustardtop 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 bulk of the slaw and holds its crisp-tender texture as it warms.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the drippings.
Meat drippings
Add fat and a savory, greasy richness that coats the cabbage.

The step that matters

Heating until steaming hot, but not boiling. Gentle heat warms the cabbage and fat through while keeping it tender-crisp. Boiling would overcook the cabbage and can make the vinegar taste harsh and dull the dish.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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