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Salad

Cole Slaw

A shredded cabbage salad dressed with sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, malt vinegar, served on lettuce leaves and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cole Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Clean and shred the cabbage.

  2. Soak in ice water until crisp.

  3. Drain and press dry.

Dress and serve

  1. Sprinkle with sugar, season with salt and Cayenne pepper, and add malt vinegar.

  2. Serve on a lettuce leaf and garnish with chopped parsley.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  3. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together660 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 crisp, bulky body of the slaw, which holds its texture when dressed.
Fine sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and adds a touch of sweetness.
Malt vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and softens the raw cabbage slightly.

The step that matters

Drain and press dry. Excess water left on shredded cabbage dilutes the dressing and makes the slaw soggy. Pressing it dry keeps the dressing clinging and the texture crisp.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, sugar, pepper, malt, vinegar, lettuce. 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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