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Hot Slaw

A warm cabbage slaw seasoned with vinegar, egg, sugar, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Hot Slaw

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Hot Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cabbage

  1. Cut or chop the cabbage and cook it in boiling salted water for 45 minutes.

  2. Drain the cabbage and add the vinegar.

Make and add the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg, sugar, flour, and cream together.

  2. Add the dressing to the cabbage.

  3. Cook slowly for 5 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

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

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the main bulk; simmering softens its fibres into a tender texture.
Egg
Its proteins set gently with heat, helping thicken the dressing and give it body.
Flour
Starch thickens the dressing as it heats, so it coats the cabbage.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the cabbage and balances the richness of the dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, making the dressing smoother and milder.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 5 minutes.. The egg and flour thicken the dressing as they gently heat. Too much heat can curdle or scramble the egg, leaving the dressing grainy and thin.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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