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Cold Slaw

A cold cabbage salad dressed with a custard made from eggs, vinegar, sugar, butter, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cold Slaw

Why it works: Pepper and cabbage 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 ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Heat the vinegar and butter together in a saucepan.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  3. Stir the beaten eggs into the vinegar mixture.

  4. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens to a soft custard consistency.

Assemble and chill

  1. Let the mixture cool before adding it to the shredded cabbage.

  2. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

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. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + cabbagetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  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

Eggs
Thicken the vinegar mixture into a soft custard as they cook, giving the slaw body.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that flavors the dressing and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to offset the acidity of the vinegar.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the slaw, absorbing the dressing and providing crunch.

The step that matters

Keep stirring until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set as they heat, so stirring over gentle heat keeps the custard smooth. If it gets too hot or sits still, the eggs can scramble into lumps.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, sugar, pepper, 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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