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Salad

Cold Slaw

A cold salad of chopped cabbage, celery, and eggs dressed with vinegar, butter, sugar, mustard, clove, pepper, and salt.

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

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage and celery finely.

  2. Chop the hard boiled eggs.

Make the dressing

  1. In a pot, combine vinegar, butter, sugar, mustard, clove, pepper, and salt. Boil the mixture together.

Combine and store

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the chopped cabbage and celery. Mix well and store in glass jars.

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 + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 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. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the slaw its tangy flavour and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow mouthfeel to the dressing.
Eggs
Add body and richness as chopped pieces through the slaw.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the vegetables. The dressing must be boiling when it hits the raw cabbage and celery so it softens them slightly and absorbs evenly. Letting it cool first leaves the vegetables crunchy and under-seasoned.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, celery, egg, vinegar, butter, 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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