Lady Cabbage

Three lines of shorthand aimed at a cook who already knew how to boil a cabbage. The whole dish turns on how briefly you boil it and how well you drain it.

• The hinge: drain it dryChopped cabbage holds an astonishing amount of water, and any that stays behind thins the milk into grey liquid. Press the drained cabbage in the colander, or return it to the dry pan over heat for a minute before the milk goes in.
• "The usual way" meant far longer than it should"The usual way" meant far longer than modern practice -- nineteenth-century recipes commonly boil cabbage for half an hour or more in a large volume of water, though times vary a good deal between books. Quartered cabbage is tender in roughly 8 to 12 minutes, and stopping there is what helps keep the sulfurous smell and the olive-drab colour away.
• Cover with milk, then barely boilThe recipe says only "milk," which in this period would have meant whole milk. Bring it just to the boil as written and serve at once; held at a simmer it can catch on the pan bottom or curdle.
• Season means salt, pepper, butterSeason means salt and pepper -- and most likely little more; the recipe does not specify. Butter was a common addition to creamed vegetables of the period, as is a grating of nutmeg, but neither is called for here.
• If you want it thickerSome period recipes for creamed cabbage rub a spoonful of flour into butter before the milk goes in, giving a light creamed cabbage rather than cabbage sitting in hot milk. This recipe as written calls only for milk.
• Quantity and yieldNo amounts are given at all. A head of about 2 lb, chopped fine, will serve four to six as a side dish; enough milk to cover it will run to rather more than a cup.
• Choice of cabbagePlain green or white head cabbage is what was meant. Savoy works and tastes better; red cabbage will bleed into the milk and turn it a dull blue.