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Salad

Cabbage or Cold Slaw

A cold cabbage slaw dressed with a custard‑like sauce made from egg, milk, butter, vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, and cayenne pepper.

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

Cabbage or Cold Slaw

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Trim off decayed leaves from the cabbage and cut it into quarters.

  2. Soak the cabbage in cold water for a while, then drain and remove the hard stalk.

  3. Slice or shave the cabbage into thin strips.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the salt, mustard, cayenne, and sugar.

  2. Add the beaten egg, milk, butter, and vinegar to the mixture.

  3. Cook in a small saucepan or double boiler over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens like custard.

Finish and cool

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the cabbage and set aside to cool.

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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + peppertop 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
Provides the main bulk and a crisp, fresh texture.
Egg
Thickens the mixture into a custard as its proteins set during gentle heating.
Milk
Adds moisture and a creamy base for the custard dressing.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over low heat. The egg proteins thicken the mixture gently as it warms, but too much heat makes them curdle or scramble. Low heat and constant stirring keep the custard smooth.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

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