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Fried Cabbage
1/2 head of cabbage, 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, A palatable seasoning of salt and pepper, 2 ounces of butter.
Wash and chop the cabbage rather fine, put into a kettle of salted, boiling water; boil twenty minutes and drain. Return to the kettle, add butter, vinegar, salt and pepper; stir until very hot and serve.
RED CABBAGE, à la FLAMANDE.
Take off the outer leaves of a hard head of red cabbage, cut it in pieces, cover with boiling water, let stand fifteen minutes; drain and chop fine. Put this into a porcelainlined stewing pan with a tablespoonful of butter, one sliced onion, one bay leaf, two cloves, one teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Simmer slowly three-quarters of an hour, stirring occasionally. Take out the bay leaf, add one tablespoonful of fresh butter and serve at once. Do not add water, as the cabbage will be sufficiently moist to prevent scorching.
Two cabbage dishes run together: a quick buttered fried cabbage and a Flemish red cabbage braise. Neither is actually fried in the modern sense.
- The twenty minutesTwenty minutes of boiling reduces chopped green cabbage to a soft, strong-smelling state that suited period taste for thoroughly cooked vegetables. Six to eight minutes leaves it tender with some bite; taste rather than time it.
- "Fried" here means tossedThe cabbage is boiled, drained, then returned to the kettle with butter and vinegar only until hot. If you want actual browning, dry the drained cabbage well and let it sit undisturbed in the butter for a few minutes before stirring.
- 2 ounces of butterFour tablespoons, half a stick. That is generous for half a head; it is what carries the dish, so do not cut it much.
- Porcelain-lined panThe point is a non-reactive surface. Cabbage cooked long in an acidic environment is hard on tin linings, and bare cast iron can turn red cabbage a dull blue-grey. Enamelled cast iron or stainless steel does the job.
- Keeping red cabbage redThe recipe soaks the cabbage in boiling water and then adds no acid, which is why colour is a real risk. A tablespoon of vinegar or a grated tart apple in the braise holds the purple; without acid it fades toward slate.
- No water, but watch itOn a modern burner "simmer slowly" for forty-five minutes in a dry pan wants a lid and the lowest setting. Check at twenty minutes and add a spoonful of water if the bottom is dry.
- The clovesTwo whole cloves in a pan of cabbage is assertive by current taste and they are easy to lose. Stick them into the onion slice or tie them with the bay leaf so they come out.
- YieldHalf a head of cabbage will serve about four as a side dish; the red cabbage, from a whole hard head, more like six to eight, and it reheats well.
Both dishes belong to the northern European cabbage tradition, and dishes of this kind reached American cookbooks partly through German and Flemish influence. The label à la flamande — in the Flemish manner — appeared on nineteenth-century menus for vegetables, cabbage among them, stewed with butter, and Belgian and Dutch cooking commonly pairs red cabbage with cloves, bay and onion, often with apple or vinegar for both sweetness and colour. The long boiling of the green cabbage fits the era's assumption that vegetables needed thorough cooking to be digestible, an idea that persisted in American cookery well into the twentieth century; the sharp finish of vinegar and butter is the older, thriftier treatment, essentially a hot slaw.