Skip to main content
Salad

Cold Slaw

A chilled cabbage salad with a creamy egg and vinegar dressing.

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

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Shred the cabbage finely.

Make the dressing

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Heat the vinegar in another saucepan until boiling.

  3. Stir in the butter, sugar, celery essence, salt, and pepper into the boiling vinegar.

  4. Add the shredded cabbage and cook until hot.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Slowly pour the hot milk over the beaten eggs, stirring constantly until thickened.

  7. Pour the egg mixture over the cabbage and toss until well mixed.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill in the refrigerator for two hours 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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

White cabbage
Forms the bulk of the slaw and provides its crisp texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the slaw its tang.
Eggs
Thicken the warm milk into a custard that coats the cabbage.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the dressing.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the hot milk over the beaten eggs. Adding hot liquid to eggs too quickly can scramble them. Pouring slowly while stirring constantly gently raises the temperature so the eggs thicken smoothly into a custard.

Swap the celery

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

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

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

More cold slaw recipes

Dressing 49 See all 157 →

You might also like

Cabbage DressingCabbage Dressing9 recipesChicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipes