Vinegar Slaw
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There is no telling how many different kinds of slaw there are in the world but most of what I’ve seen during my time is coleslaw and vinegar slaw. Today, in order for you to be able to make the BBQ sandwiches like I posted about yesterday, I’m bringing you the recipe for vinegar slaw, which is commonly served on top of pulled pork sandwiches in my neck of the woods.
This recipe is easy as pie but I’m gonna make it a little bit easier for ya. The original recipe is done in proportions but I’m giving you exact measurements in case you’ve never made it before, then you can work with proportions later once you get more comfortable with it.
One head of cabbage, vinegar, sugar. It’s that easy.
The best things in life are easy.
Now lets talk a minute about “rules”. Some folks will tell you that you should never serve pulled pork without slaw. Some folks will tell you that you should never serve pulled pork with slaw. Some folks will tell you that you should never serve bbq without red sauce and so on and so forth.
Here is my take on that. There are no rules in your kitchen except for those which you choose to make.
If you wanna make jello and call it creme brulee more power to ya. If you wanna call all your beef dishes chicken dishes, knock yourself out. When I come to your house and eat a big old plate full of beef roast I’ll just declare it the finest chicken I ever did taste!
Your kitchen = no rules.
Have fun with it.
Chop up your cabbage.
Note: I’m only using half of my head of cabbage. That yields about four to five cups and that is plenty for me.
I chopped mine up in a food processor but you can use a sharp knife and chop it, shred it, whatever cranks your tractor. Remember, no rules.
Now add your vinegar
and your sugar
The ratio here is equal parts vinegar and sugar.
Give it a stir.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. This will make more liquid after a while and is better if you let it refrigerate for a few hours before serving it but if you need to eat it now go ahead. I’m not big on waiting myself. ~grins~
Serve on top of pulled pork (the recipe is here) or as a side dish if you like. No rules! 
Ingredients
- 4-1/2 to 5 Cups finely chopped or shredded cabbage (about half a head)
- 1 Cup white vinegar
- 1 Cup sugar
Instructions
- Place cabbage in a bowl. Add in vinegar and sugar. Stir. Cover and place in refrigerator a few hours or overnight before serving. Will make more juice over time.
- *The proportions for larger quantities are equal parts vinegar and sugar.
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Ingredients
- 4-1/2 to 5 Cups finely chopped or shredded cabbage (about half a head)
- 1 Cup white vinegar
- 1 Cup sugar
Instructions
- Place cabbage in a bowl. Add in vinegar and sugar. Stir. Cover and place in refrigerator a few hours or overnight before serving. Will make more juice over time.
- *The proportions for larger quantities are equal parts vinegar and sugar.
To see the recipe for the pulled pork bbq pictured with the slaw, click here.
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jun 29 2010. Filed under Side Dishes.
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I have never made true vinegar slaw. I have a freezer slaw recipe that I use to freeze slaw for the winter and it is vinegar based. Since I am completely out of freezer slaw — your recipe is perfect timing!!
Freezer slaw? Recipe please.
Yes Candis-there is a freezer slaw and it is a great way to preserve cabbage when it gets ahead of what you can use from the garden. It stays pretty crisp and if you prefer mayonnaise based you can add a glob after the frozen slaw is thawed. DO NOT try to freeze mayo dressed slaw. Anyhow go to cooks.com site for 59 recipes -all nearly the same or type in freezer slaw on any major search engine.
seriously? That’s it? That’s pretty crazy easy, my friend!
(and Angie, what on earth is freezer slaw?)
-Smooches!
Lindsay and the wonder twins
I love your vinegar slaw BUT if you add Mayo its awesome and much better in my opinon
Seriously! What is freezer slaw??
I love this kind of slaw on my bbq sandwich. I guess it’s just an Alabama thing or at least a north Alabama thing. If you haven’t ever tried it, you should. It really goes with the bbq. Christy, do you love Whitt’s BBQ? Lawlers? Both of them?
Whitts by all means or Big Bob Gibson!
I have never had vinegar slaw. I think I will use half the cabbage for vinegar slaw and the other half for Jimmy’s colesaw. We are having a block party Sunday for the 4th. I’m making pulled pork and the normal burgers and dogs.
Have a happy and safe 4th of July. We miss you, one day was not enough. There was so much we wanted to show you. (like Italian Bakeries and Pizzerias and Restaurants lol, you know it’s almost always about food.)
Have a good green day,
Love ya,
Thanks Christy…love the easy recipe for slaw! Do you think Splenda would work in this?
Bountiful Blessings!
I am wondering the same thing about Splenda vs sugar. We could try it half sugar and half Splenda but sure would hate to ruin it. Sounds so good.
Splenda will work in this! just go easy on it, make sure to use a teensy bit less than you would sugar and it will be fine.
I just love my artificial sweeteners!!
Gratefully ,
Christy
Sorry, didn’t see your comment before I replied.
Thank you!!
me too! Thank you!
I use Splenda all the time. Works great.
I loved pulled pork BBQ sandwiches. The recipe seems easy. I like eating mine with slaw on top. I usually make a mustard slaw for polish sausages and hot dogs. You take a bag of slaw mix and add mustard, sugar, white vinegar, and celery seed. Place in the fridge over night. It is better the next day.
The recipes for the BBQ pulled pork sandwiches & vinegar slaw sound wonderful! I am trying them this weekend (if not before since my mouth is already watering).
Thanks so much for these-
Christy,
Thank you SO MUCH for an easy vinegar slaw recipe. I’m making this very soon. I could hug your neck for this recipe if I were in the room with you
Thank you for this slaw recipe. I have never made vinegar slaw either, but I will make this. It’s so easy! Next time I go grocery shopping, I’m buying pulled pork and slaw ingredients. Have a blessed day!
I have to tell you. I’ve never heard of slaw with only vinegar and sugar. I’ve always made mine with Miracle Whip, vinegar and sugar. The vinegar and sugar not nearly to the proportions that you used. But hey, no rules.
Would you mind sharing your recipe with the Miracle Whip in it? It seems all I’ve ever eaten is slaw that was of a creamy nature. I’ve never made slaw. However I do want to make the vinegar to try it out.
I’d always had slaw with mayo until I went to Canada once – there it was, freshly made in a mom-and-pop grocery store – vinegar slaw! We fell in love with it then and never looked back.
A half-cup of oil and this would be my recipe for the dressing on three bean salad.
Here in NC, we substitute the vinegar for Eastern NC BBQ Sauce. Now that’s really good BBQ slaw.
Christy, thanks so much for the pork BBQ and slaw recipes!!! I grew up on Whitt’s BBQ and vinegar slaw (on the BBQ sandwich with potato chips on top of the slaw) and I have always wanted to know how to make them at home!! My family is going to be SO excited!! Can’t wait to try these! YUMMY!!!!
I’ve eaten slaw made by others that looks like it was run through a blender and it feels like a spoonful of goop when you put it in your mouth. Me wife makes the best slaw ever. The slaw is much better and a pure joy to eat when it is shredded real fine, as on a Mandolin the way I do it, or with great diligence, patience, and attention as my wife does with a large chef’s knife. Her shredded cabbage looks like angel hair. We both cross-cut it a couple times with the knife. Then we tasty it up with Marzetti’s Low Fat Cole Slaw Dressing. Don’t drown it in dressing; a little goes a long way. And it’s sooooooooooo good. I could eat a half head of cabbage this way.
I wonder if you could just use the shredded cabbage in a bad and add the vinegar and sugar. That would make it really easy!
Of course I meant “bag” instead of “bad”.
It isn’t quite as good as fresh. But I’ve found if I wet it with a little water and then bruise it or squeeze it with the sugar, it will be much better.
Hey, remember Christy always says your kitchen, your rules. Go for the bagged shredded cabbage if you want to!!! Let us know how good it is….
Roger my mother use to make the best cole slaw using a cooked dressing recipe – then without anyone knowing it she started using Marzetti’s cole slaw dressing and it was just as awesome as her cooked dressing. I discovered her secret while helping her clean up after a family dinner.
How easy can you get? I have got to try this…I nominate Christy for “Kitchen Queen” of the year..Love your site girl!
I second the nomination!
This is a great thing to take to a Cook-Out in this stifling NC weather! No worries about mayo spoiling and poisoning the whole neighborhood! Oh my gosh, could you imagine being the person responsible for sending folks to the emergency room to get their Independance Day stomach pumping! I think I’ll try this to go with the pig that we’ll be pickin’!
[...] week to bring you an entire Fourth of July menu that doesn’t require an oven or a grill. In my next post I’ll be bringing you the vinegar slaw pictured on this sandwich and then we’ll wind the week up with a great dessert that can easily [...]
Yum…add a couple pickles and it looks just like Whitt’s (which I love)! I’m gonna try this one. Thanks
Just don’t get the notion I was knocking Christy’s recipe. I wasn’t. Just expressing how good the cole slaw is that my wife makes. I don’t remember seeing bagged shredded cabbage but have used the bagged shredded broccoli in stir-fry.
Don’t you worry one bit, Roger!! It’s always good to see a man bragging on his wife’s cooking and I could almost taste it by your description!
I agree with Christy. Husbands SHOULD brag on their wives more… and Visa Versa. The world would be a much better place if that happened more often.
Christy, Vinegar slaw is my favorite. I have even eaten slaw sandwiches. But I have to share my hint. If you bruise or squeeze the cabbage with the sugar before you add the vinegar, it will help give it more juice and a better taste. My sister’s manfriend couldn’t get over how much better my slaw was than hers. She was following my ingredients. I finally asked if she was bruising her cabbage. Now her slaw is like mine. I also put a little salt/pepper in it. I’m even going to let her make it for the 4th.
Wow!! A vinegar slaw recipe and I have half a head of cabbage in my fridge.
You read my mind! Thank you, Christy! I love the tanginess of vinegar slaw. I make the slaw and pick up a butt roast for pulled pork on Friday. I will be in nirvana (or hog heaven) on Saturday. Just might make your congealed salad for dessert. I’m on a roll.
Well, the verdict is in at our house –2 thumbs up! We loved it! Thanks for sharing the recipes!
I make my slaw with your white Bar-b-Que sauce. It is great!
Mmm that looks yummy and I’ll bet it’s great on the pulled pork sandwiches! And I agree with your approach to rules
I’ve been told by more than one person that lemon doesn’t go with tomato and tuna doesn’t go with tomato either, but one of my favorite super easy pasta sauces is tomato sauce with copious amounts of lemon juice and a can of tuna. Learned to make it in Austria even though it’s hardly a recipe. It may sound weird, but I’ve been enjoying it for 10 years.
I use the same recipe,but I bring my vinegar to a boil and then stir in my sugar until sugar has desolved,then pour into my cabbage.
Have you ever done or heard of it done this way?
Your Biggest Fan,
Terry GOD BLESS
This is magic slaw…my husband (who will not eat any cole slaw I’ve ever made) just tasted, then ate it!!! And said it was (gasp) GOOD!
I’m going to add this to my “must try” list … so simple. Plus it is a good recipe for picnics since it doesn’t contain any type of mayonnaise.
I wasn’t sure about this when I saw the name, but my husband mentioned that he loved vinegar slaw – I didn’t know that. Anyway, I’m going to make some for him.
Thanks, Christy, for helping me learn more about my husband!!
Denise in Dallas
Ohhh….made this tonight and it was perfect. Reminded me of Whitts BBQ.
[...] but still want a good meal on the Fourth. Be sure to check out my slow cooker pulled pork BBQ and Vinegar Slaw and thanks to the new web design, all of this week’s recipes have the button them to allow [...]
[...] Vinegar Slaw | Southern Plate [...]
Perfect! I always add oil or mayo but am going with this next time. thanks! (daughter bringing bbq pork butt this weekend…………..)
I love vinegar slaw! At our house, we add a handful of chopped cilantro and chop up some canned jalapenos. Goes really well with fish tacos, too!
Is this the recipe for Whitt’s BBQ slaw? Whitts is my fav BBQ. I love when our family visits Decatur.
Shannon in Florida
Just wanted to say “thanks” for this recipe as well as the BBQ pork recipe. Made both for family that is visiting this week and even my two young nieces loved it! My family has requested the recipe and even ate it two days in a row. Delicious!
Bagged slaw mix is always better if you rinse it first, it gets rid of the acidic acid or whatever it is they use as a preservative.
Just want to add that we often have newcomers who’ve never had vinegar slaw before and, sadly, don’t like it. They’ve never heard of slaw without mayonnaise. Well…too bad. More for us!
Yes you can use Bag Cabbage. I always soak it in Ice Water then drain before making the slaw. I put in carrots, onions and green peppers along with herbs from my garden. Vinegar, sugar, salt and Olive Oil. I mix my dressing in the blender. I am going to try just vinegar and sugar next time. Somedays I only eat left over slaw for lunch – add an apple or nuts-something crunchy
This is the exact recipe my mother used to make. And I don’t believe she was ever south of Indiana in her life! Who knew? I’m so happy to have the proportions for this, as it remains my favorite slaw recipe ever. Thanks, Christy.
Hope you enjoy Jay!!!
Thanks for this recipe. My son will not eat anything with Mayo. Tried this recipe and he loved it ..
I tried the vinegar slaw and pulled pork last night, and it was wonderful. I used more spices on the roast (ground mustard, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt) and I used molasses instead of the brown sugar and hot sauce instead of red pepper flakes because I was out of the other, and it was not vinegary at all. The slaw was so easy, I did add a little salt and pepper. The combination reminded me of the north Alabama BBQ I grew up on, and made me a little homesick. Great recipe! it is going in my file.
My Mom made her coleslaw different that any recipe I have ever seen. Chopped cabbage, 2 or 3 Tablespoons of sugar, 2 or 3 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and mix it up with Sandwich Spread. Very good. It was always eaten with a full meal of whatever she cooked that day. Good with chicken and dumplings and green beans and cornbread. Also good on hotdogs. Someone please try it and let me know what you think. I grew up on this stuff.
My Mom made her coleslaw different that any recipe I have ever seen. Chopped cabbage, chopped onion 2 or 3 Tablespoons of sugar, 2 or 3 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and mix it up with Sandwich Spread. Very good. It was always eaten with a full meal of whatever she cooked that day. Good with chicken and dumplings and green beans and cornbread. Also good on hotdogs. Someone please try it and let me know what you think. I grew up on this stuff. Also my sister makes a cabbage dip–chopped cabbage, onion, tomatoes, fresh cilantro, canned jalapeno peppers. Use as much ingredients as you like the pour the juice from the peppers over and stir well. Store in the refrigerator and stir well before serving with tortilla chips. Oh so good. The bowl will not set on the table long, it will be passed around so much.
I grew up in Fayetteville, TN but now live in Chattanooga and we can’t get good vinegar slaw over here, so I travel back home to eat at the OLD Greenbrier BBQ about 2 times per year (close to Madison, AL). The slaw, hushpuppies and white sauce are worth the trip.
Thanks for the recipes!