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Salad

Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage salad with eggs, butter, cream, sugar, mustard, and vinegar.

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

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Combine eggs, butter, cream, sugar, mustard, red pepper, onion, parsley, and vinegar in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the mixture over the shredded cabbage.

  2. Heat everything together before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the sauce as they cook, giving it a creamy body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Cream
Contributes moisture and richness, softening the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the slaw its tang.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish, absorbing the warm dressing and softening slightly.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened. Eggs can scramble if heated too fast. Low heat and constant stirring let the egg proteins thicken the sauce smoothly without curdling.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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