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Hot Slaw, German Style

A spicy, braised cabbage slaw cooked with salt pork, onion, consommé, cayenne pepper, sea salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hot Slaw, German Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shred the cabbage very finely.

  2. In a pan, sauté the diced salt pork and minced onion until golden.

Braise

  1. Add the raw cabbage and moisten with a little strong consommé.

  2. Cover the pan and braise slowly for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to keep moist.

Season and serve

  1. Season with Cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, and a little vinegar 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.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Cabbage + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the slaw and becomes tender and sweet as it braises.
Salt pork
Renders fat that coats the cabbage and adds savoury, meaty flavour.
Onion
Softens and sweetens during sautéing, building a flavour base.
Strong consommé
Provides moisture and savoury depth while the cabbage braises.

The step that matters

Braise slowly and keep the pan moist. Slow, covered cooking softens the cabbage gradually. Stirring and the added liquid prevent scorching and drying, so the cabbage becomes tender rather than burnt or tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pork, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pork, pepper, 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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