Hot Slaw
3 TABLESPOONS BACON GREASE 1/2 CUP VINEGAR AND WATER I EGG, LIGHTLY BEATEN Season cabbage with salt, pepper and a very little sugar. Heat in bacon grease 20 minutes or so, then beat egg in a cup with vinegar and water, pour on cabbage, let simmer a minute or two and serve your hot slaw really hot.
Although some folks say cold slaw it's really coleslaw, whether hot or cold, from kool sla, Dutch for cabbage salad, although other slaws are made of other vegs. The simplest coleslaw is just cabbage cut in strips and mixed with a bottled cooked dressing, although many folks prefer to mix their own. Some Down-Easterners mix the tender young leaves of the foxberry into their first coleslaw of the Spring.
A skillet slaw in the German-Pennsylvania mold: cabbage wilted in bacon fat, then bound with a quick egg-and-vinegar dressing. The whole thing hinges on keeping the pan below a boil once the egg goes in.
- Quantity of cabbageThe ingredient list gives the dressing only; no amount of cabbage is stated. The proportions given here suit about one medium head, roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb, shredded fine — enough for four to six as a side.
- Vinegar and water"1/2 cup vinegar and water" means half a cup of the two combined, but the recipe does not say in what proportion; equal parts is one reasonable reading. With modern 5% cider vinegar, half and half is sharp; use two parts water to one of vinegar if you want it milder.
- Do not let the egg boilOnce the beaten egg mixture hits the pan, keep it at a bare simmer and stir. A full boil scrambles the egg into threads and the dressing breaks instead of thickening.
- Twenty minutes is a long wiltCabbage in fat for 20 minutes goes soft and faintly sweet, which is what the recipe intends. If you want any bite left, 6 to 8 minutes over medium heat is plenty; expect a very different, crisper dish.
- Bacon greaseThree tablespoons of rendered bacon fat carries the flavour of the dish and cannot be swapped for oil without losing the point. Fry three or four rashers, chop them, and scatter them over the finished slaw.
- Salt and sugarSeason the raw cabbage as directed. "A very little sugar" is not quantified in the original; a teaspoon or so is enough to round off the vinegar, not to sweeten.
- Foxberry leaves"Foxberry" is a regional common name applied to more than one plant, most often lingonberry/partridgeberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) in New England and the Maritimes but elsewhere to others, so the exact plant intended here is uncertain. Do not forage substitutes on the strength of a shared common name.
- Serve at onceThe instruction to serve it "really hot" is practical: the egg dressing tightens and dulls as it cools, and reheating splits it. Bring the pan to the table.