Shred a red cabbage very fine. Heat 2 tablespoonfuls of drippings in a pan; add the cabbage; cover and let stew with 2 apples, and 1 onion chopped fine. Then brown 1 tablespoonful of flour in hot butter; add ½ cup of water mixed with vinegar. Season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Pour the sauce over the cabbage; let simmer ten minutes. Add ½ cup of red wine; let boil up and serve hot.
A red cabbage braise in the German-Jewish style, written in the telegraphic style of a day-a-page calendar cookbook. The quantities work for about one medium head; the missing information is time.
- The hinge: acid before heatRed cabbage turns a dull blue-grey in an alkaline pan. The vinegar here arrives late, with the sauce, so add a splash of the vinegar to the cabbage at the start as well to hold the colour. The apples contribute acid too, which is part of why they are in the pot.
- Stewing timeNo time is given for the first stage, and ten minutes at the end is nowhere near enough on its own. Covered, over low heat, shredded red cabbage wants 45 to 60 minutes to go tender; check for moisture and add a few spoonfuls of water if the pan dries.
- DrippingsIn a Jewish kitchen this means rendered goose, chicken or beef fat rather than bacon fat. Schmaltz gives the closest flavour; a neutral oil works if you have none.
- Butter and meat fat togetherThe recipe browns the flour in butter after starting the cabbage in meat drippings, which would not pass as kosher if the fat is animal. Cook the roux in more of the same fat, or in oil, if that matters to you..
- QuantitiesA tablespoonful in a cookbook of this period is broadly comparable to the modern tablespoon, though older usage varied. Two apples is best read as firm cooking apples, peeled and chopped; a tart variety balances the sugar better than a sweet one.
- The sauceOne tablespoon of flour browned in fat and let down with half a cup of watered vinegar makes a very thin, sharp gravy. Use roughly two parts water to one part vinegar unless you want it aggressive, and whisk it in off the heat to avoid lumps.
- WineHalf a cup of red, boiled up briefly at the end, is there for body. A short boil takes the raw edge off the alcohol rather than removing it, and drives off little of the liquid, so let it reduce a little longer if the pan looks loose.
- YieldAbout four to six side servings. It reheats better than it serves fresh, and is traditionally eaten with roast goose, duck or brisket.
Sweet-sour red cabbage with apple, onion and a browned-flour sauce belongs to the shared German and Central European table, and was cooked in Jewish kitchens in Germany, Alsace and Bohemia in much this form, using goose or chicken fat instead of butter or bacon drippings. The dish travelled to the United States with nineteenth-century German-Jewish immigration and became a familiar winter accompaniment to roast poultry and pot roast. It appears here in a book that assigns one dish per day to a different nation or people, with a venison a la Francaise on either side of it.