Coleslaw

Method

1. slice10 min
   knife or mandoline, roughly 2 mm
   green cabbage cut into ribbons no thicker than a coin — a box grater shreds it too fine and the strands collapse into mush once salted; long thin ribbons keep their spring
2. brine30 min
   room temperature, in a colander
   cabbage + carrot + salt, tossed to coat and left to weep. Salt pulls free water out of the cell walls by osmosis, which is the entire trick: cabbage is about 92% water, and any of it left inside will leave the cell later and thin the dressing into a puddle
3. prep3 min
   squeezed dry
   rinse the salted cabbage briefly under cold water to pull back the surface salt, then press hard in a towel — the vegetables should feel limp and dry, and will have given up several tablespoons of liquid
4. whisk2 min
   mayonnaise + apple cider vinegar + sugar + mustard + celery seed + black pepper, until glossy and pourable. Add the vinegar gradually: mayonnaise is already a full emulsion, and dumping acid in at once can thin it past the point where it will cling to a cabbage strand
5. mix2 min
   drained cabbage + carrot + dressing, folded until every strand is coated but not beaten — plus any optionals. Taste for salt now, after the rinse, not before
6. rest30 min
   refrigerated, covered
   the slaw, so the vinegar and sugar penetrate the softened cabbage and the celery seed blooms. Eaten immediately it tastes like dressed raw vegetables; after half an hour it tastes like coleslaw. Beyond about 8 hours even salted cabbage keeps leaking and the texture slides toward soft