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Salad

Cole-slaw

A salad of finely chopped cabbage dressed with a warm egg yolk, vinegar, butter, salt, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cabbage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cole-slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine egg yolks, vinegar, butter, and salt.

  2. Stir over low heat until the butter melts, avoiding boiling.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the warm mixture over the finely chopped cabbage.

  2. Add black pepper and let it cool completely 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.

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. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify with the melted butter and vinegar to give the dressing a thick, creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the butter and yolks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps form a smooth, creamy emulsion with the yolks.
Finely chopped cabbage
Forms the bulk of the salad and absorbs the dressing as it sits.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks begin to scramble above roughly 160°F, so gentle heat is needed to thicken the dressing into a smooth emulsion rather than curdled bits.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

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