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Hot Slaw

A spicy cabbage slaw cooked with pork and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Trim the cabbage, wash it, and cut it into quarters.

  2. Remove the stalks and shred the leaves finely.

  3. Season the shredded leaves with salt and pepper.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, fry the pork pieces until nicely browned.

  2. Add the vinegar to the saucepan, then add the cabbage.

  3. Cover immediately and let it simmer slowly for 25 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve as a vegetable or a garnish for roast pork.

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

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together919 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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 slaw and becomes tender as it simmers.
Fat pork
Browns in the pan and releases fat that flavours the cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the cooked cabbage.

The step that matters

Cover immediately after adding the cabbage. Covering traps the steam so the cabbage softens evenly in its own moisture and the vinegar stays in the pan. Uncovered, the liquid evaporates, the cabbage can scorch, and the slaw turns dry and harsh.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, pork, 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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