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Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage slaw tossed with a creamy, tangy dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Hot Slaw

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper 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 ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into small pieces with a sharp knife.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Place the cabbage in an oven at 400°F (200°C).

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk and add the butter, cream, vinegar, sugar, mustard, and celery seed.

  2. Heat the mixture in a tin cup until hot.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the cabbage and stir until well mixed and slightly cooked.

  2. Serve hot.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Pepper + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  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 dish and softens slightly when tossed with the hot dressing.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies with the cream and butter, giving the dressing a smooth, thickened body.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, mellowing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the slaw its tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Heating the dressing. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently but can scramble if it gets too hot, leaving the dressing grainy. Heat it only until hot and keep stirring so it coats the cabbage smoothly.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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