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Cream Cabbage
Slice the cabbage, and cook in just water enough to prevent scorching; season to taste with salt and pepper. When done, drain off the water, and pour over it a small cup of cream, piece of butter the size of an egg, and a small quantity of flour, made smooth in a little milk. Let it boil and serve.
A plain braise-and-thicken method that works well once you fix the two vague measures and stop the cabbage short of collapse.
- Butter the size of an eggThat is roughly 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. It is a standard nineteenth-century measure and reads generously by modern taste; 2 to 3 tablespoons is ample for a medium head.
- A small cup of creamRead it as roughly 6 fluid ounces. The richness of period cream varied with the dairy and the skimming, so either light or heavy cream will serve.
- A small quantity of flourUnspecified in the original. Slake it smooth in a few tablespoons of cold milk before adding; too much turns the sauce pasty. Whisk it in off the boil to avoid lumps.
- Cooking the cabbage"Just water enough to prevent scorching" points to a shallow braise rather than a full boil, most likely covered. Eight to ten minutes for sliced cabbage keeps some bite; longer cooking draws out the sulfurous notes.
- Drain thoroughlyThe duplicated line in the printed text appears to be an error in the setting or transcription, but the instruction matters twice over. Cabbage holds a surprising amount of water, and any left in the pan will thin the cream to a puddle. Press it lightly in the colander.
- Let it boilBring it to a boil briefly, a minute or two, to cook out the raw flour, then serve.
- YieldOne medium head of cabbage, about 2 pounds, serves four to six as a side dish.
Creamed vegetables were a fixture of American home cookery from the mid-nineteenth century into the mid-twentieth, and cabbage was among the cheapest candidates: it stored for months in a cellar or root pit, it grew in almost any northern garden, and it was available long after more delicate vegetables had gone. The cream-and-flour finish here is simply a butter-flour-liquid thickening built directly in the pan rather than a separately made white sauce; period household books vary, with many calling instead for a separately made white sauce or drawn butter. Compilations like this one printed the method in a few lines because the technique was assumed knowledge. The dish also solved a persistent problem with boiled cabbage's reputation, since fat and dairy soften both the texture and the strong sulfur notes that long boiling draws out.