No. 2659

Cabbage Salad—White or Red

Salade de Choux-Blancs ou Rouges

Have either a very fresh white or red cabbage; suppress the outer leaves, also the hard parts and core; mince it up finely, and lay it in a bowl, sprinkle over some salt, and let macerate for one hour, then drain off its liquid and season with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. A cabbage salad, called cold slaw, is made by shredding the cabbage as finely as possible and seasoning it with salt, pepper, oil, vinegar and tomato catsup.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A plain macerated slaw from Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), given in two lines because he assumed the cook already knew the ratios. A few things need spelling out.

The hinge: salt and drainThe hour of salting is the whole technique. It draws out water so the dressing clings instead of pooling, and it softens raw cabbage without cooking it. Do not skip it, and do drain and press the cabbage before dressing.
How much saltRanhofer gives none. About 1 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of shredded cabbage is enough to draw water; taste after draining and salt again only if it needs it, since the cabbage retains a good deal.
Quantities for the dressingRanhofer gives no proportions. Three parts oil to one part vinegar is the usual vinaigrette ratio and a safe starting point: for a 2 lb cabbage, 6 tablespoons oil and 2 tablespoons vinegar, then adjust.
"Cold slaw"The Americanism is generally traced to Dutch koolsla (kool, cabbage; sla, salad), heard in English as "cole slaw" and often reinterpreted as "cold" slaw. Ranhofer's version is dressed with oil, vinegar and catsup rather than mayonnaise.
Tomato catsup then and nowThe catsup of the 1890s was generally thinner and sharper, and typically less sweet, than modern bottled ketchup. Use a spoonful or two at most, or the dressing turns candied; a little extra vinegar restores the balance.
Red cabbage bleedsRed cabbage releases purple liquid as it macerates and will tint the dressing. The acid in the vinegar brightens the color; dress it shortly before serving if you want the shreds distinct.
Shredding"As finely as possible" is Ranhofer's only instruction; in practice aim for very thin shreds, on the order of 1/16 inch. A mandoline or the slicing disc of a food processor gets closer to the intent than a knife, though a knife on a quartered, cored head works well enough.
YieldA medium head, roughly 2 lb trimmed, serves six to eight as a side. Dressed slaw holds a day in the refrigerator but loses crispness after that.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer cooked at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean is his attempt to set down the whole repertoire of a great American restaurant in French terms. That is why this entry carries a French title and then quietly concedes that Americans call the second version "cold slaw" — the word is generally traced to Dutch koolsla, cabbage salad, which English speakers heard as "cole slaw" and often wrote as "cold slaw" through the nineteenth century. The catsup in the second version is a marker of its date: bottled tomato catsup had become a common American condiment by the 1890s, and its appearance in a Delmonico's book shows a French-trained chef absorbing a domestic sauce his customers already kept on the table. The salting-and-draining step, meanwhile, is far older than either, and belongs to the same logic as salting cucumbers or eggplant.