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Salad

Cold Slaw

A chilled cabbage salad with egg yolks, sugar, vinegar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cold 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 ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Run the cabbage through a food chopper using the fine knife.

  2. Salt and pepper the cabbage well and let it stand.

Make the dressing

  1. In a double boiler, beat the egg yolks and add sugar, salt, pepper, and mustard.

  2. Stir in the weakened vinegar and cook until thick, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and add sweet cream, mixing well.

  4. Fold in the whipped cream just before serving.

  5. Adjust seasoning with more salt, pepper, or sugar if needed.

Serve

  1. Serve as a salad with cucumbers cut into corrugated slices.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and give it a rich, smooth body.
Weakened vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and richness of the dressing.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing to offset the sharpness of the vinegar.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the tang of the vinegar.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a airy texture to the finished dressing.
Cabbage
Forms the main body of the salad, with a crisp texture that holds the dressing.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until thick, stirring constantly. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle if overheated. Gentle, constant stirring over a double boiler lets them thicken smoothly into a custard-like dressing.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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