Another one of those difficult vegetables: cabbage

It's clear to me that my mind is slowly going. I could have SWORN that I wrote about this already, and no one could remember reading it. So I went back and looked at everything (you know, some of these pieces are GOOD), and they were right. Nothing on cabbage. So, here goes.

You may not know it, but you DO like cabbage. Uh huh. Yup, you do. Most of you like coleslaw. You also like sauerkraut. And if you really think that most of that green stuff in the tacos and burritos you eat is lettuce, well.... cabbage is cheaper. And how much did you pay for that taco? And why do you think that, when you went home and made them yourself, with lots of shredded lettuce, it didn't taste the same?

But everyone has a memory of strong, stinky odors when cabbage was cooked at home. And of course, many of us remember the issue of, shall we say "inconvenient digestion". Yup, I hear ya. But you know, those are problems that can be taken care of really easily, if cabbage is cooked properly. And I'm gonna explain how I do it. When I do it this way, the house never stinks, and while I cannot say those inconveniences are gone, they are extremely reduced.

There are a lot of vegetables in the cabbage family, but I'm going to focus on the "head" varieites we know: the plain green one, the red one, and the frilly, fancy one we call savoy. Everything I say here you can do to all of them, but I have particular ways of cooking each one, differently, as I hope you'll see.

The distinct odor you recall from cooking cabbage comes from cooking it incorrectly. Cabbage is, in fact, loaded with sulfur compounds: the same ones that make eggs stink when they're boiled the wrong way. Sulfur is extremely soluble, and it's also very easy to form gasses from sulfur compounds. If there isn't enough water for the sulfur compounds to dissolve into, they will enter the air. So, here's issue number one, solved: you have to cook cabbage in plenty of water, if you're going to boil it (and I suggest you do NOT boil it). And here's the answer to the next question: but the cabbage is so BIG. I don't have a pot big enough.

Stop being so bloody cheap. Buy a smaller one. I never buy a cabbage that is more than two pounds, and that's a real tiny one. As they get bigger, it seems that there is more sulfur in them (they're older, and the chemical reactions making sulfur compounds continue), there's more volume, and it just becomes a truly serious issue of aroma. So, use a small one.

Now, the other one that makes sense when you think about it is this: expose lots of surface area for the cabbage to cook. You don't smell that nasty sulfur smell when you eat coleslaw, do you? No, because it's been shredded, and not cooked. We've talked about cooking already, but the other part of this is exposing surface area. If you shred the cabbage or slice it fine, you give the sulfur more of a chance to escape, and away it goes.

Now, there is another solution: cook the cabbage for a shorter length of time, and the sulfur stuff doesn't happen. "Shorter" for cabbage is a relative term. I cook it for thirty minutes. I will BET you that your mom, your aunt, your grandmother, your bubbe, whomever, cooked it for hours. That's because she cut it into big wedges, the way Fanny Farmer taught her to, and then had to cook these humongous hunks that were as big as your little sister's head, until they were tender. Poor women. They KNEW it stunk, they KNEW it tasted bad, but you know what? It was cheap. It was filling. And if you covered it with enough stuff like caraway seeds, sour cream, etc, maybe you didn't notice it.

Okay, how do you shred the cabbage? What I do is I cut the head, lengthwise. This will expose the base stem, that holds it to the ground. Make a triangular cut on both sides, and cut that away. Then, you have to waste a few leaves. The ones on the outside are very tough, and very leathery, and will peel away very easily. When you get to the part that's tight on the head, stop. Now, put the cut side down on a surface and make very thin cuts, all the way down. Use a BIG knife and work slowly. You can do this. You'll get a lot of fine shreds, and you'll also get chunks that really can't be cut. Again, you can get rid of them.

You can follow this technique with any of the three varieties I mentioned above. Italian cabbage, or "cavolo nero," is closer to kale, and the chinese cabbages (any vegetable that ends in "choy" or "choi" is a cabbage in Chinese. "Bok" as in "bok choi," is Cantonese for white, and so "white cabbage is bok choi. In mandarin, it becomes "bai chai" Don't ask me how I know this trivia. Just keep reading. And if you need it on Jeopardy one day, thank me . And give me part of your winnings).

To cook my cabbage, I use vegetable oil, or butter, or a combination of the two. This is very much an arbitrary, "mood" thing, but it seems that for idiosyncratic reasons I can't explain, when I cook red cabbage, I always use oil and when I cook green or savoy, I use the mixture. Can't explain it, it just "is what it is." So slick the pan, and put in the cabbage. If you want, slice an onion and add that too. I almost always do, because the onion is going to cook for the thirty minutes and add some sweetness to the dish. If you want - and again, idiosyncratically, I always do this with GREEN cabbage, never with red, peel an apple, shred it, and add it to the mix as well. Turn the heat to just under medium, add a teaspoon or so of salt, and let the thing cook, covered, for about fifteen minutes. You might want to stir it once during this fifteen minutes.

After the fifteen minutes, you get to play a bit more. Cabbage DOES have a strong, but bland flavor, even this way. I find that it needs some acid to kick it up. I have come to very much like a combination of cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar, perhaps 1/4 cup of the first, and a few tablespoons of the second, together with a sprig of thyme, or a sprinkle of caraway or both. But again, I'm idiosyncratic here. I use the vinegar with red cabbage. With green cabbage, I use white wine, that is not a dessert wine, but is just too sweet for us to drink as a regular beverage. But then, I also add a quarter cup of white vinegar. So let that whole mix cook away for another fifteen minutes, covered. Stir it once, if you like. After that fifteen minutes, uncover the pot. If it looks too wet to you, let it cook uncovered for about ten minutes, but keep an eye on it, because it has a tendency to burn. If it looks fine, taste it, and adjust it, either with balsamic (for sweetness), or other vinegars ( for tartness). Let it cool down, and you're set.

This makes more than enough for one meal for two people, but there are many ways you can use left over cabbage. At the suggestion of a friend, I once combined it with broad noodles and a spoon of sour cream, and it was really and truly satisfying. He told me a meatball or two would be even better with it.

I make cabbage like this when I'm serving something like sausage for dinner, which is what we're having tonight: lamb sausages with fruit salsa, pan fried potatoes, and the cabbage. There's plenty to go around. Wine is going to be interesting. The sausage says Syrah, the cabbage says riesling or gewurztramminer. Who will win? Ask, and I'll tell you. But try making the cabbage. I think you won't be disappointed.