A Good Dish of Cabbage?

credit: La Grande Farmers' Market

I love cabbage. I will never turn down a new cole slaw recipe. Sauerkraut is delicious. So is kim chi. Cabbage is very tasty with sausages and/or mashed potato, and also provides a satisfying crunch to a fish taco. It is low in calories, and high in fiber, which makes it a dieter's dream! It's also full of antioxidants and vitamins! Delicious. Unless you boil it too long, allowing all those vitamins to go up in steam, and noxious fumes to fill your kitchen.  Mrs. Black was mostly concerned with easy digestion though, so I'm sure this recipe would not bother the eater with any "wind" related issues.

"Take a good firm cabbage and wash it thoroughly, removing any decayed leaves from the outside: cut it across the stalk twice, about two inches deep, to let the water penetrate to the thick part. Let it soak in salt and water for about half-an-hour. Then put it on in plenty of boiling water with some salt in it, and a small pinch of carbonate of soda, and let it boil with the lid off for ten minutes. Then pour all the water away and fill it up again with boiling water from the kettle, add a little salt and let it boil for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes longer till it is cooked. Take it up on a strainer and squeeze all the water from it with a spoon or saucer, when it may be turned out on a plate or dish for use. Or chop it up finely, put it in a basin and mix with it a good large teaspoonful of butter, a little pepper and salt, 2 large table-spoonfuls of milk and egg well beaten, stir it all with a fork and put it in a pudding-dish, sprinkle a few bread-crumbs over the top, and put it in the oven or before the fire to become firm and brown the top. This is a delightful way to use cabbage. Very digestible and nourishing."

Pretty simple, right? I'm marginally interested in trying the cabbage "gratin" recipe. Did you notice that she is cooking the cabbage whole? Modern instruction generally encourages you to cut out the hard core and cut up the cabbage - slices, shreds or wedges, before attempting to cook. If cut up, contemporary recipes for boiled cabbage recommend 8-10 minutes cooking tops. Though I recommend braising it - saute some garlic and onion in olive oil with salt and pepper. When soft, add sliced cabbage and a cup of wine (or beer - a nice choice if you are serving with sausages). Pop the lid on your pan and let it cook on medium low heat till soft. About 8-10 minutes. You can add some caraway seeds to the mix if you want to tart it up a little. Serve with sausages or corned beef. Yum!

You Must Not Think This Soup is Poor or Useless

I know you have been wondering what to do with the veal bones that you very carefully removed from your breast of veal whilst making your rolled veal (see previous post). I hope you didn't give them to the dog, because Mrs. Black was an early adopter of "snout to tail" cooking. Nothing is wasted. Also, nothing ventured, nothing gained. So, without further ado, Mrs. Blacks helpful hints for Veal Soup:

"Put the veal bones on in the soup pot with 10 breakfast-cupfuls of water (2 1/2 quarts) and let it boil Then add an onion, a piece of turnip, and a small parsnip, and let the whole boil for two hours at least. Afterwards put it through a strainer and return it to the pot, and when it boils up again add a teacupful of rice well washed, and let that boil for twenty minutes; then put in a good large table-spoonful of chopped parsley, and a teacupful of milk, enough salt to season the soup, and a little white pepper; boil for five minutes longer, and pour it into the tureen.

"It is obvious this soup must be put on before the veal, as it takes longer in the process of cooking. Take the parsley and wash it well, and put it in the corner of a towel, wring it quite dry and the chopping afterwards will be a very easy process. You must not think this soup is poor or useless, because there is not much meat or even bone in it. Vegetables are in many ways much better than meat, and soup made with them alone is both nice and very nourishing."

Certainly you cannot argue that Mrs. Black is anything but frugal. And she was ahead of her time in extolling the virtues of vegetables. One cannot help but wonder, however, if the soup might be made better by adding additional fresh chopped vegetables to the parsley in the final moments. (Though I do appreciate that she only boils the parsley for five minutes.)  Carrots might be nice, and maybe a fresh parsnip or two. I'm sure the broth is delicious, but a piece of turnip, a small parsnip and an onion all boiled for two hours and then removed cannot be leaving very much behind in the way of nutrition. The extended description of chopping the parsley is fabulous don't you think? I wonder how many Glaswegian housekeepers struggled with chopping parsley before Mrs. Black's helpful hint...And I do wonder about the overall availability of rice in Glasgow in the 1880s. A very quick internet search shows lots of potatoes at that time, but not so much in the way of rice. More research needed here, I think.

I certainly do not think this soup poor or useless, but instead, I am sure it is a delicious first course to whet the appetite for more delicious nibbles to come. Salt not included.