Coleslaw

The name comes from the Dutch koolsla, 'cabbage salad' (kool, cabbage; sla, salad), and the dish was carried to America by Dutch settlers; a 1770 English text records the term, and a recipe for shredded cabbage dressed with vinegar, oil, and butter appears in the 1667 Dutch cookbook The Sensible Cook. The familiar mayonnaise-dressed version is later, dependent on the spread of mayonnaise, and became an American staple as the commercial product grew common in the early twentieth century. Vinegar-based slaws remain the older form, especially in the South.

Crisp and cold, with a clean cabbage snap under a creamy, clinging dressing. The flavor swings between sweet and sharply tangy, with carrot adding faint sweetness and color. Good slaw is dressed but not drowned, the cabbage still crunchy rather than limp. A slaw that has gone watery and soft at the bottom of the bowl has sat too long or been salted wrong.

Salt is the key variable: lightly salting the shredded cabbage and letting it drain draws out water by osmosis, so the dressing isn't diluted and the slaw keeps its crunch instead of weeping. The dressing is an emulsion — mayonnaise (itself an oil-in-water emulsion of egg yolk) loosened with vinegar and sugar — that coats each shred. Acid from the vinegar slightly softens and brightens the cabbage without cooking it. Chilling lets the flavors marry while the raw vegetable stays crisp.