An Excellent Way of Boiling Cabbage
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Trim and wash the cabbage in cold water, checking for insects.
Cut the cabbage almost into quarters, leaving the stem intact.
Soak the cabbage in cold water for 1 hour.
Boil and drain
Boil a pot of water with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the cabbage and boil for 1.5 hours, skimming occasionally.
Drain the cabbage in a colander. Cool the cabbage under running cold water.
Discard the first water. Wash the pot. Boil fresh water. Add the cabbage again.
Finish
Cook for 2 to 2.5 hours until tender.
Drain well. Press with a ladle to remove moisture.
Cut into quarters.
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
- Long boiling softens its dense leaves until tender and sweet.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the cabbage takes on flavour as it boils.
The step that matters
Pressing out moisture after the final cook. Cabbage holds a lot of water after long boiling. Pressing it with a ladle removes excess liquid, so the cut quarters stay concentrated in flavour rather than diluted and soggy.
“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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