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Hot Slaw

A cabbage slaw dressed with a hot sauce of butter, cream, vinegar, sugar, mustard, and celery seed.

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

Why it works: Cabbage and mustard 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 ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into small pieces with a sharp knife.

  2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Place the cabbage in an oven at 400°F (200°C).

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk and add butter, cream, vinegar, sugar, mustard, and celery seed.

  2. Heat the mixture in a small saucepan until hot.

Combine and serve

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the cabbage and stir until well mixed and slightly cooked.

  2. Serve hot.

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

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

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

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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 dish and softens slightly when the hot dressing is stirred in.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies the dressing and thickens it as it heats, giving a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that rounds out the sharp vinegar.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, making the dressing smooth and mellow.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the slaw its tangy flavour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Heating the dressing gently. The egg yolk can scramble if the mixture gets too hot, leaving lumps instead of a smooth, thickened dressing. Heat it only until hot and stir constantly so the yolk thickens evenly.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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