Name: Southern Cabbage
Ingredients: 1 large head of cabbage; 1 tablespoon salt; a pinch of baking soda

Southern Cabbage

Ingredients

1 large head of cabbage
1 tablespoon salt
a pinch of baking soda

Directions

Prepare

Fill a large kettle with water until two-thirds full and bring to a boil.
Add salt and baking soda.
Cut the cabbage into quarters and break it into smaller pieces.

Cook and drain

Add the cabbage to the boiling water and cook for 20 minutes.
Remove the kettle from heat, strain the cabbage through a colander, and discard the water.

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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Cabbage: Is the main vegetable; cooking softens its tough leaves and makes it tender.
Baking soda: Raises the water's alkalinity, which helps the cabbage soften and keeps its color bright.

“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.