Coleslaw traces its roots to ancient Greece, where cabbage salads dressed with vinegar and herbs were recorded as far back as the 4th century BCE. The dish as we know it today, though, owes its name and modern identity to the Dutch, who brought their “koolsla” (literally “cabbage salad”) to colonial America in the 17th century.
Ancient Greek and Roman Cabbage Salads
Long before anyone called it coleslaw, people around the Mediterranean were chopping cabbage and dressing it with vinegar. Mnesitheus, a Greek medical writer in the 4th century BCE, recorded a recipe for “Athenian cabbage,” which called for chopped cabbage served with coriander, rue, honey vinegar, and silphium, an herb now believed to be extinct. These early versions weren’t considered side dishes so much as medicine. The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder included a series of cabbage recipes in his treatise “Natural History,” completed in 77 CE, each one supposedly offering different degrees of healing power. One recipe described a cabbage salad made with vinegar, eggs, and spices.
These ancient preparations share a clear family resemblance with modern coleslaw: raw or lightly prepared cabbage, an acidic dressing, and simple seasonings. But the direct line to today’s coleslaw runs through the Netherlands, not Rome.
The Dutch Give It a Name
The word “coleslaw” comes from the Dutch “koolsla,” a combination of “kool” (cabbage) and “sla” (salad). When Dutch settlers arrived in what is now New York in the early 1600s, they brought cabbage-growing traditions and their simple dressed cabbage salads with them. The settlement of New Netherland, with its capital New Amsterdam on the island of Manhattan, became a hub for Dutch foodways in the New World.
The word first appeared in written American English in 1794, described as “a piece of sliced cabbage, by Dutchmen ycleped cold slaw.” That phrasing reveals an interesting quirk: English speakers misheard “kool” as “cold,” which is why some people still call the dish “cold slaw” today. The “cole” in coleslaw actually refers to cabbage, from the same root as the word for plants in the cabbage family (think broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts).
Early American Recipes
The oldest known American coleslaw recipe dates to around 1770, found in a book called “The Sensible Cook: Dutch Foodways in the Old and New World.” It called for sliced cabbage dressed with vinegar, oil, and melted butter. No mayonnaise, no sugar, no creamy dressing. This vinegar-forward style stayed dominant in American kitchens for decades and remains the standard in many parts of the world.
The big shift came with the rise of mayonnaise. Though mayonnaise itself was developed in 18th-century France, it took time for home cooks to adopt it as a coleslaw dressing. Once they did, it fundamentally changed the dish’s character in the United States. The tangy, oil-and-vinegar slaw gave way to the creamy, rich version that most Americans now picture when they hear the word. Many international versions of coleslaw still skip the mayonnaise entirely, sticking closer to the vinegar-dressed original.
Coleslaw in American Culture
By the 19th and 20th centuries, coleslaw had become a fixture of American cooking, particularly in the South, where it paired naturally with barbecue and fried foods. Its association with German and Dutch immigrant communities gave it an interesting moment during World War I, when anti-German sentiment led Americans to rebrand German-associated foods. Sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage” and hamburger became “liberty steak.” Coleslaw, with its Dutch rather than German origins, largely avoided this treatment, but the episode reflects how deeply cabbage dishes had woven themselves into American identity by that point.
Today coleslaw varies enormously by region. Southern barbecue joints often serve a vinegar-based slaw, closer to the dish’s colonial roots. The creamy, mayonnaise-heavy version dominates at delis, cookouts, and fast-food restaurants. Asian-inspired slaws use rice vinegar, sesame oil, and chili. Caribbean versions incorporate tropical fruits. Each is a descendant of the same basic idea that Greek physicians were writing about 2,400 years ago: shredded cabbage, something acidic, and whatever seasonings suit the cook.