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Salad

Cold Slaw

A chilled salad of shredded cabbage, mashed egg yolks, boiled potatoes, mustard, sugar, oil or butter, and salt.

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

Why it works: Mustard and cabbage 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 ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Mash the hard-boiled yolks in a bowl.

  2. Add the boiled potatoes, mustard, sugar, salad oil or melted butter, and salt, then mix until well combined.

Finish the slaw

  1. Fold in the shredded cabbage.

  2. Serve chilled.

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. Mustard + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  2. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  3. Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Their fat and emulsifying lecithin help bind the dressing into a smooth, creamy texture.
Boiled potatoes
They add body and thickness to the dressing, making it heavier and creamier.
Mustard
Its sharpness adds acidity and savory bite that balances the sugar and fat.
Salad oil or melted butter
Fat coats the cabbage and carries flavor, giving the dressing a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Cabbage
Provides the crisp, fresh bulk of the slaw that the dressing clings to.

The step that matters

Mix the dressing until well combined before folding in the cabbage. Yolk, potato and fat must be fully blended into a smooth emulsion; if they stay lumpy or separated, the dressing will look greasy and coat the cabbage unevenly.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, potato, mustard, sugar, butter. 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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