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Salad

Slaw Dressing

A dressing made from mustard, egg, water, sugar, sweet milk, vinegar, celery seed, mustard seed, pepper, salt, and cabbage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Slaw Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine mustard, egg, water, sugar, sweet milk, and vinegar.

  2. Heat the mixture on the stove, stirring constantly until it thickens but does not boil.

Dress the cabbage

  1. Prepare the cabbage by sprinkling it with celery seed, mustard seed, pepper, and salt.

  2. Pour the hot dressing over the cabbage and mix well.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Celery + cabbagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 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

Egg
Thickens the dressing as it heats and adds richness to the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the slaw its tangy flavour.
Sweet milk
Adds body and creaminess to the dressing.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent flavour to the cabbage.

The step that matters

Heating the dressing without boiling. The egg proteins thicken the dressing as it warms, but boiling can curdle the egg and leave the sauce grainy. Stirring constantly and stopping at thickening keeps it smooth.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, egg, sugar, milk, vinegar, pepper, cabbage. 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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