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Red Cabbage, German Style
Trim the leaves from two small, solid heads of red cabbage, divide them in halves; place the flat side downward on the table and cut the cabbage into slices a half inch thick. Put two tablespoonfuls or two ounces of butter in
The text as printed breaks off mid-sentence, so the braising liquid and timing are missing; what survives is the preparation and the start of the method. The points below cover what the fragment gives and what the standard version of the dish requires.
- The page is incompleteThe recipe stops at "Put two tablespoonfuls or two ounces of butter in" — presumably a saucepan or braising pan. Everything after that, including the vinegar, sugar, apple and cooking time that define the German treatment, is absent. Work from a complete recipe if you want the finished dish.
- Butter measureTwo tablespoons and two ounces are not the same thing: two tablespoons of butter is about one ounce. Either quantity works for two small heads, with the larger giving a richer result.
- Two small headsReckon a small red cabbage at about 1 1/2 lb trimmed. Two of them cook down considerably and will still serve six to eight as a side.
- Half-inch slicesCutting the halves flat-side-down into half-inch slices gives coarse shreds rather than the fine shave used for slaw. That thickness is deliberate: it holds up through a long braise instead of collapsing into pulp.
- Core itThe instruction to halve and slice leaves the core in. Cut the dense white wedge out of each half before slicing, or those pieces will still be hard when the leaves are tender.
- Acid is not optionalRed cabbage cooked in a plain pan turns a dull blue-grey; its anthocyanins need acid to stay red. Vinegar, apple or a squeeze of lemon added at the start is what keeps the colour, which is why nearly every version of this dish includes one.
- Pan materialFor the same reason, cook it in stainless steel, enamel or glass. Bare cast iron or aluminium will dull the colour further.
- TimingSliced this thickly and braised covered over low heat, red cabbage wants 45 minutes to an hour and a half. It improves reheated the next day.
Red cabbage braised with fat, vinegar and sugar — Rotkohl or Blaukraut, depending on which part of the German-speaking world you are in — travelled to American tables with nineteenth-century German immigration, and by the time this book was printed it was familiar enough that a cookbook could label it simply "German Style" and expect readers to know what was meant. The two regional names are commonly explained as a piece of kitchen chemistry preserved in language — the same vegetable reads red where the water and the cooking are acidic and blue where they are not — though they are also simply dialect variants. Cabbage — cheap, keeping well through winter, and forgiving of long cooking — was among the most useful things a household could buy.