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Hot Slaw

A hot cabbage salad dressed with a creamy egg yolk and butter vinaigrette.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Hot 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 ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely shave the cabbage using a sharp knife.

  2. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, cold water, butter, vinegar, onion juice, salt, mustard, and pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. Stir the mixture over hot water until it thickens to a cream‑like consistency.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the dressing to the cabbage and heat it throughout.

  2. Sift the salt, pepper, and mustard before adding to the sauce.

  3. If desired, stir in the sugar.

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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they gently set over heat, giving it a creamy body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the richness of the butter and yolks.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and softens slightly as the warm dressing is added.

The step that matters

Stir the dressing over hot water until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but too much heat can overcook them and make the dressing curdled or grainy. Constant stirring over moderate heat keeps the mixture smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Radishfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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