White cabbage is the Danish vegetable you don't notice until it's missing. It sits in the cellar through winter and in the corner of the summer fridge, patient and plain, waiting to become something. Hvidkaalssalat is the first thing it becomes when you know what you're doing.

This is the slaw that goes alongside frikadeller on a Tuesday night and next to a pork roast on Sunday. In July it sits on the grill table with sausages and new potatoes and whatever the garden gave you that morning. The flavor is clean and honest: raw cabbage softened with salt, a sharp cream dressing laced with caraway, enough acid to wake everything up. Nothing hidden, nothing fussy, nothing trying to be more than it is.

The technique is simple but there's one thing that matters more than the others: you have to let the cabbage rest with the salt before you dress it. Ten minutes is enough. That small pause breaks the cell walls just enough to keep the crunch but lose the squeak, and it's the difference between a slaw that drinks the dressing and a slaw that fights it. You'll know when it's right because the cabbage will feel softer in your hand but still snap cleanly when you bite it.