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Cold Slaw
Shred cabbage very fine, and place it in a salad dish. For every one and one-half pint of cabbage allow one-half cup of vinegar; one and one-half teaspoon of salt; one-fourth teaspoon of pepper; three teaspoons of sugar; one tablespoon of butter; two tablespoons of cream; three eggs. Place the vinegar and seasoning on the fire. Beat the eggs well, turn them into the vinegar, stir constantly until the mixture thickens, and then add the cream. Remove the dressing from the fire, and pour it while hot over the cabbage. Garnish with rings of hard boiled eggs, and serve when cold.
A boiled dressing rather than a mayonnaise — the eggs do the thickening, and the whole success of the dish rests on not letting them scramble.
- Low heat, or a double boilerThree eggs in half a cup of acidic liquid will curdle in seconds over a direct flame. Use gentle heat and stir without pause; if you are unsure of your burner, set the pan in simmering water. The mixture should coat a spoon, not set into curds.
- The butter is listed but never usedThe ingredient list calls for a tablespoon of butter and the method never mentions it. Melting it into the vinegar with the salt, pepper and sugar at the start is one reasonable place to add it.
- Vinegar strengthVinegar strength varied from household to household, and half a cup to a pint and a half of cabbage is sharp by modern taste. Cutting the vinegar with a couple of tablespoons of water is a reasonable adjustment and will not affect the thickening.
- Cream"Cream" here is likely richer than today's light cream; light cream or half-and-half will thin the dressing noticeably. Note that the recipe adds the cream while the pan is still on the fire and removes it only afterwards, so keep the heat gentle at that point.
- Shredding"Very fine" means fine — an eighth of an inch or less, cut with a knife or on a mandoline. Coarse shreds will not soften under a hot dressing and the slaw stays raw-tasting.
- Dress hot, serve coldPouring the dressing on while hot wilts the cabbage slightly and lets it absorb the seasoning. The recipe directs only that it be served cold, so allow time for it to chill.
- YieldA pint and a half of shredded cabbage is three cups, roughly half a pound, or a wedge off an average head; the quantities given serve about two to four as a side.
"Cold slaw" is generally traced to an English mishearing rather than a description. The Dutch koolsla — literally cabbage salad — came into American kitchens with Dutch settlers, and by the nineteenth century cookbooks were printing it as "cold slaw," which in turn produced the phantom "hot slaw" for warm-dressed versions. The cooked egg-and-vinegar dressing here is older and more typical of American home cooking than the mayonnaise slaw that later displaced it: mayonnaise required steady whisking and good oil, while a boiled dressing used the vinegar, sugar and eggs that any household already had.