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Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage slaw dressed with a custard‑like sauce of eggs, mustard, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Hot Slaw

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,645 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into thin slices or chop it, but not too fine.

  2. Place the cabbage in a pot with just enough water to cook it until tender.

  3. Drain the cabbage well and transfer it to an earthen dish to season.

  4. Add butter, salt, pepper, a dash of sugar, and vinegar to the cabbage in the dish.

  5. Mix well and adjust vinegar to taste, adding more at the table if desired.

  6. Keep the cabbage warm in the oven until serving.

Make the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, mustard or mayonnaise, white sugar, cream or milk, and butter.

  2. Cook the mixture over boiling water until it thickens to a custard-like consistency.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the cabbage or stir it in, keeping it hot until serving.

  2. Garnish with celery heads and curled parsley 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. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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, once cooked until tender, gives the slaw its soft texture.
Eggs
Thicken the dressing into a custard-like sauce as they set gently over heat.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to both the cabbage and the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the butter and eggs.
Mustard or mayonnaise
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the dressing.

The step that matters

Cooking the dressing over boiling water. Eggs set into a custard as they warm, but if the heat is too high they scramble and turn grainy. Gentle, steady heat keeps the dressing smooth and pourable.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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