Name: Spare Ribs with Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 gallon hot water; 1 teaspoon salt

Spare Ribs with Cabbage

A dish of spare ribs cooked with cabbage, potatoes, and optional spinach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients

Spare Ribs with Cabbage

Ingredients

1 gallon hot water
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Cook the cabbage and ribs

Trim a medium cabbage, cut in quarters, put in a kettle with 1 gallon hot water, 1 teaspoon salt and half as much pepper, cover and boil slowly 45 minutes.
If the spareribs are salted, keep them in fresh water during this time.
Add them to the kettle, cover and cook 45 minutes longer.
Then add several raw peeled potatoes, and cook till the potatoes are done.

Serve

Drain the cabbage, put on a hot platter, lay the meat on top, and dress with the potatoes.
If the cabbage is young it need not cook so long.
Corned beef may be cooked in the same way, cooking it 1 hour before the cabbage is put in.
Spinach may be used to garnish either, but should be cooked separately.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Spareribs (in the method): Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering in the broth.
Cabbage (in the method): Becomes soft and sweet as it slowly boils, forming the bulk of the dish.
Potatoes (in the method): Absorb the cooking liquid and add starchy, filling body to the platter.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.