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Heidelberg Cabbage
Select two small, solid heads of hard red cabbage; divide them in halves from crown to stem lay the split side down, and cut halves from crown to stem; lay the split side down, and cut downwards in thin slices. The cabbage will then be in narrow strips or shreds.
Put into a sauce-pan a table-spoon of clean drippings, butter or any nice fat; when fat is hot, put in cabbage a tea-spoon of salt, three table-spoons vinegar (if the latter is very strong, use but two), and one onion, in which three or four cloves have been stuck, buried in the middle; boil two hours and a half; if it becomes too dry and is in danger of scorching, add a very little water. This is very nice, - Mrs. L. S. Williston, Heidelberg, Germany.
A plain German braise of red cabbage, sweetened by nothing but long cooking. Two details carry it: the vinegar, which keeps the colour, and the clove-studded onion, which does all the seasoning.
- Vinegar is not optionalRed cabbage pigment turns a dull blue-grey in an alkaline or neutral pan and stays crimson in an acid one. The three tablespoons of vinegar are there for colour as much as flavour, so add them at the start rather than at the end.
- Cut for the pan, not the plateHalving crown-to-stem and slicing downward gives shreds that hold together through a long braise. A food processor slicing disc works, but avoid grating, which turns the cabbage to mush in half the time.
- The onion is an onion clouteThe onion is an oignon clout s pushed into an onion and buried in the middle, as the recipe directs. It perfumes the pot without scattering cloves through the dish; you may want to lift it out before serving, though the recipe does not say to.
- Two and a half hours is longThe recipe says to boil that long, presumably in a heavy pan on a range that was hard to hold at a steady low heat. On modern gas or induction, an hour to ninety minutes at the barest simmer, lid on, will give tender cabbage; much longer and the shreds collapse.
- Use a lidThe recipe says nothing about covering the pan, and the warning about scorching may mean it was left open. Cover it, keep the heat very low, and the cabbage will braise in its own moisture with only a splash of water needed.
- QuantitiesOne tablespoon of fat for two small heads is lean by modern habit; two or three will not hurt anything. Two small heads of red cabbage run to roughly 2 to 3 lb and will serve six or so as a side.
- Pan choiceEnamelled cast iron, stainless or a well-glazed pot. Bare cast iron and aluminium react with the acid and will dull both the colour and the taste.
- Balancing at the endMany traditional German versions of this dish include a grated apple or a little sugar with the vinegar, though this one has neither. Taste before serving; a long-braised cabbage with no sugar can read sharply sour to a modern palate.
Red cabbage braised with vinegar, onion and cloves is the German Rotkohl or Blaukraut, a standing accompaniment to roast pork, goose and game across much of central Europe. The two names are chiefly regional -- Rotkohl in the north, Blaukraut in the south and Austria -- and the connection often drawn between them and whether acid is added is a popular explanation rather than a documented one. Its appearance here, credited to Mrs. L. S. Williston writing from Heidelberg, is an example of how community cookbooks of the period gathered contributions from correspondents and printed them under place-names. The Dixie Cook-Book was assembled by subscription in the same manner.