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German Cold Slaw
2 pints of chopped white cabbage. 1 pint of chopped apples. 1 pint of cider vinegar. 1 tablespoonful of white sugar. Salt, pepper, and some capers for garnish.
Chop the cabbage and the apples seperately, then mix them and the seasoning. Serve large spoonfuls neatly rounded in individual flat dishes, with capers strewn over the top.
A vinegar slaw with no oil and no cooking, from an era when "cold slaw" meant exactly that. The proportions need thought before you commit to them.
- The vinegar is the hingeA full pint of cider vinegar to three pints of chopped vegetables and fruit is a marinade, not a dressing. Toss, let it stand 20-30 minutes, then drain well before plating; served undrained it is punishing.
- Volume, not weight2 pints of chopped cabbage is roughly three-quarters of a pound, a good half of a medium head. 1 pint of chopped apple is about two medium apples. Chop both fine and to a similar size so the mixture rounds neatly in the dish.
- SugarOne tablespoon against a pint of vinegar barely registers. Cider vinegar of the period was not standardised in strength and may well have been less sharp than a modern bottling; taste and add more sugar until the acid stops stinging, which may mean two or three times as much.
- Apple choice and browningUse a firm tart apple. Chop the apple directly into the vinegar, or last of all, or it will brown in the few minutes it takes to finish the cabbage.
- CapersNot decoration alone. Rinse brined capers, or brush the salt off salt-packed ones, before strewing them, otherwise they push an already salted dish over the line.
- Serving"Individual flat dishes" means small salad plates, one mound per person. The quantities give six to eight portions as a side.
- KeepingBest within a few hours. Overnight the cabbage slumps and the apple goes soft, though the flavour holds.
"Cold slaw" is generally taken as an English reshaping of the Dutch koolsla, cabbage salad, which reached American kitchens through Dutch settlement and was reinterpreted as a slaw served cold, with "hot slaw" following as its counterpart. The version here is called German because it follows the central European habit of dressing shredded cabbage with vinegar and a little sugar rather than with cream or a cooked egg dressing, and of pairing it with apple, a combination that also turns up in German-style red cabbage.