Why it works: Cabbage and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,001 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Hot Slaw
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until the grease is rendered.
Chop the cabbage and sprinkle with coarse sea salt; let it sit for 15 minutes.
Dress and serve
Pour the hot bacon and grease over the cabbage.
Heat the vinegar in the same pan used for the bacon and pour it over the cabbage.
Add chopped onion if desired.
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.
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Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,001 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bacon
- Renders fat that coats the cabbage and adds savory, smoky flavor.
- Cabbage
- Forms the main body of the slaw, becoming tender as it wilts in the hot dressing.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that balances the richness of the bacon fat.
- Onion
- Adds sharp, aromatic flavor to the slaw.
The step that matters
Salting the cabbage. Salt draws water out of the cabbage through osmosis, softening its texture so it wilts properly. Letting it rest for the full time gives the salt time to work before the hot dressing is added.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, vinegar):
- Mustardfits better
- Radishfits better
- Horseradishfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar. 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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