Dolly Parton’s Coleslaw
I no longer have a place to cook, but the recipe sounds delicious.
Dolly’s secret? Pickle juice.
This article by Genevive appeared in Epicurious
bowl of cole slaw
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Susan Ottaviano
Genevieve writes “The best coleslaw I’ve ever had is Dolly Parton’s. Okay, Dolly has never personally made me coleslaw or been a guest at any potlucks I’ve attended. But her method for the popular cookout side—which appears in the book Dollywood Presents Tennessee Mountain Home Cooking—is truly spectacular.
The book was published in 1989, and is authored by “the Dollywood Family,” employees at the Dollywood theme park. It’s filled with photos of young Dolly and classic Southern recipes, including chicken and dumplings, apple stack cake, and banana pudding, with credits to the employees the recipes came from. While there isn’t much text, flipping through the cookbook feels like a warm, comforting hug. But the bright, refreshing coleslaw is one of a few recipes in the book that comes from the Queen of Country herself.
Dressed in a punchy, acerbic mixture of white vinegar, pickle juice, and mayonnaise, Dolly’s slaw manages to be creamy, sweet, sour, and salty all at once. Pickle-forward slaw is genius: It’s a side salad and a sandwich topping in one.
Dolly’s recipe calls for chopped green or purple cabbage and onion, grated carrot, diced red bell pepper, and minced dill pickle. If you don’t have a jar of pickles on hand, Dolly recommends using pickle relish. To make the salad, you simply have to toss all the vegetables in a bowl with one part pickle juice, one part white vinegar, and four parts mayonnaise, and season with a touch of granulated sugar, salt, and black pepper. It’s a formula so simple you could memorize it, and it can be made all in one bowl—you don’t even have to whisk the dressing together in a separate vessel.
The sharpness of the pickle juice and white vinegar cuts through the creaminess of the mayonnaise and prevents the slaw from being overly cloying. The brine also lends subtle notes of dill, coriander, and mustard—in other words, pickle spices—adding a flourish of seasoning that is often missing from coleslaw. Each bite of chopped pickle is a welcome surprise that I, a lover of relish and all things tangy, begin to look forward to with each new bite.
There are about a million different opinions on the best way to prepare coleslaw, depending on the region of the United States that you find yourself in. (Potato salad offers similar range.) In 1989, journalist Leslie Land explored the variations of American coleslaw in The New York Times. “In the South,” Land writes, “buyers are partial to a finely chopped, heavily sweetened version” that often doubles as a hot dog relish. Though Dolly’s slaw isn’t excessively sweet, the dash of sugar and the pickle (or relish) called for in her recipe is reminiscent of the slaws beloved and eaten throughout the South.
Summer and barbecue season may be slowly coming to an end, but even when it’s cold outside, I know I’ll still be looking for any and all reasons to make Dolly’s coleslaw. Maybe it will make its way onto a grilled cheese, or find itself served next to pan-seared pork chops. Dolly’s a musician, actor, cake mix entrepreneur, and philanthropist—but all along, she’s also been a true coleslaw expert.”
After graduating from the International Culinary Center, Genevieve cooked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Per Se. Prior to joining Epicurious, she was a freelance recipe tester and editor, food stylist, and personal chef. She worked on the most recent edition of The Essential New York Times Cookbook.
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This post originally appeared on Epicurious and was published August 10, 2022. This article is republished here with permission.
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