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Hot Slaw

A cabbage slaw cooked with pork fat, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Trim and wash the cabbage.

  2. Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the stalks.

  3. Shred the leaves finely.

  4. Season the cabbage with salt and pepper.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, fry the fat pork pieces until browned.

  2. Add the vinegar and cabbage to the saucepan, then cover it immediately.

  3. Let it simmer slowly for 25 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve as a vegetable or garnish for roast pork.

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. Cabbage + vinegartop 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. Cabbage + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together919 recipes

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

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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 bulk of the dish and softens into a tender, mellow vegetable as it simmers.
Fat pork
Renders fat into the pan for frying and adds savoury richness to the cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the slaw its sharp, tangy flavour.

The step that matters

Covering the pan immediately after adding the vinegar and cabbage. Trapping the steam keeps the cabbage moist and lets it cook evenly in its own liquid during the slow simmer. Lifting the lid early lets steam and heat escape, which can leave the cabbage dry or unevenly cooked.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, vinegar, 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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