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Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage salad cooked with butter, flour, vinegar, egg, salt, and pepper.

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

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

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the shredded cabbage and stir in the flour.

  3. Cook the cabbage, stirring often, until heated through but not fully cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the beaten egg with the vinegar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Pour the egg and vinegar mixture over the cabbage and let it scald for a moment.

  3. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish and softens as it cooks, becoming tender while keeping some bite.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the cabbage cook without sticking.
Flour
Lightly thickens the pan juices so the dressing clings to the cabbage.
Egg
Thickens the vinegar mixture into a creamy dressing when it meets the hot cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the egg and butter.

The step that matters

Pour the egg and vinegar mixture over the cabbage and let it scald for a moment.. Egg proteins set when heated, so the dressing can curdle or turn grainy if it gets too hot or is held too long. Scalding just until it thickens keeps it smooth.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, vinegar, egg, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, vinegar, egg, pepper. 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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