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Cold Slaw Dressing

A cold dressing for slaw made with egg, sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, vinegar, butter, cream, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cold Slaw Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Beat the egg white, then mix in the yolk.

  2. Add sugar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Stir in vinegar and butter, cooking constantly to prevent lumps.

Finish

  1. Once cold, thin the mixture with cream.

  2. Add a pinch of celery seed or salt to taste.

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 + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Thickens the dressing as it cooks and gives it a smooth, creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the dressing its sharp, tangy flavour.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the dressing and softens its sharpness.
Cream
Thins the cooled mixture and adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir in vinegar and butter while cooking constantly. The egg proteins set with heat and can curdle or form lumps if the mixture overheats or is left unstirred. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the dressing thickens smoothly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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