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Cabbage
Cut cabbage in quarters. Pull open the leaves. Let stand in cold salted water 30 minutes. To one head of cabbage allow one-half pound of salt pork or bacon. Put meat in kettle of cold water, when boiling put in cabbage cut from the stalk. Cook in uncovered vessel for one-half hour. When done drain, season with salt and cayenne pepper, pile on platter, put meat in center and serve.
A plain boiled dinner in miniature: salt pork simmered in water, cabbage cooked in the resulting broth, both served on one platter. Two things need adjusting for a modern cook — the pork wants a longer head start, and the cabbage a much shorter one.
- Cook the pork first, properlyHalf an hour is not enough for a half pound of salt pork or a slab of bacon to become tender. Simmer the meat 45 minutes to an hour before the cabbage goes in, then time the cabbage separately.
- Half an hour is too long for cabbageQuartered cabbage is usually tender in roughly 10 to 15 minutes at a simmer, and the wedges hold their shape. Thirty minutes gives grey, collapsed leaves and leaches out the sugars that make boiled cabbage worth eating.
- Why the pot stays uncoveredCabbage releases sulfur compounds as it cooks, and an open pot lets them escape rather than condensing back into the water. This is one piece of old advice worth keeping.
- The cold-water soakThirty minutes in cold salted water was a way to flush insects out of the folded leaves of a garden or market cabbage. With supermarket heads a rinse is sufficient, though the soak does crisp a limp cabbage.
- Salt with careSalt pork and bacon both salt the cooking water heavily and the cabbage absorbs it. Taste before adding any salt at the end; the cayenne is the part that actually needs your judgment.
- Modern salt porkSalt pork is still sold, usually as fatty side pork in a plastic tub, and it can be very salty. Rinse it, or give it a brief blanch in fresh water, before starting the pot.
- YieldOne head of cabbage with a half pound of meat serves four as a main dish, six if there are potatoes alongside. Save the cooking liquid — it makes a good base for soup the next day.