Boiled Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the cabbage thoroughly and cut it into quarters.
Cook
In a large pot, bring water to a boil and add the piece of bacon.
Add the cabbage to the boiling water and cook for about 3 hours.
To reduce odor, add a pinch of baking soda to the pot.
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.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cabbage
- The main vegetable; long boiling softens its leaves until they are tender.
- Bacon
- Releases fat and smoky flavor into the cooking water, seasoning the cabbage as it cooks.
- Baking soda
- Raises the alkalinity of the water, which helps reduce the sulfur odor of cooking cabbage.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda. Only a pinch is called for. Baking soda makes the water alkaline, which can soften cabbage too far and turn it mushy and discolored if too much is used.
“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.
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