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Cabbage Salad
Chop cabbage to make three pints, add two tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of salt. Boil one cup of vinegar, add a heaping tablespoon of butter, then add slowly two well-beaten eggs, then the chopped cabbage. Stir well, remove from the fire and cool. If desired, one-half cup of sweet cream may be added. Serve with lettuce or in cups made from hollowed peppers, tomatoes or cooked beets.
A boiled-dressing coleslaw: the eggs are cooked by the hot vinegar rather than whisked raw into oil. The whole dish hinges on how you combine them.
- Temper the eggsBeaten eggs dropped into boiling vinegar will curdle into shreds. Pull the pan off the heat, whisk a ladleful of the hot vinegar into the eggs first, then return the mixture to low heat and stir constantly until it thickens to the consistency of thin custard.
- The order as printedThe instruction to remove from the fire comes after the cabbage goes in, but the dressing should already be thick by then. Treat the cabbage as a final off-heat addition, or it wilts to limpness while you wait for the eggs to set.
- Three pints of cabbageChopped cabbage measured loosely, so roughly 1 to 1 1/2 lb trimmed — very approximately half a medium head. It reduces considerably once salted and dressed.
- A tablespoon of saltHigh by modern taste. Salt will draw water from the cabbage as it stands. Start with a teaspoon, taste after the dressing has cooled, and add more if wanted.
- Sweet creamSimply fresh unsweetened cream, as opposed to soured cream — use heavy or whipping cream. It softens the vinegar sharpness noticeably and is worth adding.
- Vinegar strengthA full cup of vinegar is aggressive with modern 5 percent distilled white. Cider vinegar gives a rounder result, and the two tablespoons of sugar read more as a balance to the acid than as sweetening.
- Yield and servingEnough for six as a side. The pepper, tomato or beet cups are period presentation; hollow them, drain well, and fill just before serving so they do not weep into the dressing.
- KeepingBecause it contains cooked egg and cream, refrigerate and eat within two days. The cabbage continues to release water, so drain or stir before serving leftovers.
Boiled dressings of this kind — vinegar, sugar, butter and egg thickened over the fire — were common in American cookbooks through the nineteenth century, before bottled mayonnaise was widely sold. They suited a household with eggs, cream and cider vinegar to hand, and salad oil of reliable quality was harder to come by. Cabbage was an obvious partner: cheap, keeps well in storage through winter, and sturdy enough to hold up to a hot dressing. The suggestion to serve the salad in hollowed peppers, tomatoes or beets reflects a turn-of-the-century taste for the decorative "made" salad, a fashion visible in cookbooks of the period with their cups, moulds and rings.