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Cold Slaw

A chilled cabbage salad with eggs, vinegar, sugar, mustard, and butter.

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

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Finely cut the cabbage and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  2. Refrigerate the cabbage until needed.

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the eggs in a saucepan.

  2. Add vinegar, sugar, mustard, and butter to the eggs.

  3. Cook over low heat, stirring until it becomes a smooth paste.

  4. Set aside to cool.

Serve

  1. Mix the cooled sauce with the cold cabbage 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. 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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the crisp, bulky body of the slaw.
Eggs
Cooked gently, they thicken the dressing into a smooth, creamy paste.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the vinegar's sharpness.
Prepared mustard
Adds a sharp, savory note to the dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture to the dressing.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg dressing over low heat. Eggs thicken as their proteins set, but high heat or long stirring can curdle them into lumps. Low heat and constant stirring keep the dressing smooth.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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

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