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Cold Slaw

A chilled cabbage salad dressed with vinegar, butter, mustard, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cold Slaw

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage finely with a knife.

  2. Season the cabbage with pepper, salt, mustard, sugar, and celery seed if desired.

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, boil the vinegar with the butter.

  2. Beat the egg yolk and stir it quickly into the vinegar mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture over the seasoned cabbage and mix well.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 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 bulk of the slaw and provides its crisp texture.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies the hot vinegar and butter, giving the dressing a creamy body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar, adding sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that smooths the dressing.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk into the hot vinegar. Adding the yolk too slowly or without stirring can let it cook unevenly and form lumps. Stirring quickly spreads the heat and keeps the yolk smooth and evenly thickened in the dressing.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, mustard, sugar, vinegar, butter, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

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