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This lovely pickled red cabbage perfect with pork chops or roast pork.
Red Cabbage: Traditional With Pork
When you think of pork chops or a nice roasted pork loin, don’t you automatically think of some lovely red cabbage to accompany it? Especially in the fall.
This was a pairing I learned after I married my husband. He was of German extraction and red cabbage is more or less a traditional German thing. When my mother-in-law served roast pork or pork chops, she always had some delicious red cabbage to go along with it.
It’s a tradition I’ve kept up since it was something I really liked. I grew up with poached apple rings or applesauce with pork–traditional British style. At the risk of offending my ancestors, I like red cabbage with pork more than apple (sorry Mum).
Shredding The Cabbage
This is one of the jobs I prefer to do with a good old 8-inch chef knife. The reason being that there’s less to clean up and believe it or not, less prep work.
A mandolin would be my second choice. Again, clean up is easy and it does a great job.
I have every kitchen appliance known to mankind so naturally I have a food processor and a big KitchenAid mixer with most attachments. I even have an electric mandolin. But have you noticed you have to prep the food just to go in these machines? To me, that’s adding many unnecessary steps and leaves me with a sink full of dishes. Nope.
The knife method is great because you don’t have to finely shred the cabbage. In fact, it looks more rustic if it’s larger shreds. Red cabbage is a little tougher than the green stuff you get for St. Patrick’s day so it will require a longer cooking time.
Adjust Seasoning To Your Taste
I like this red cabbage dish a little on the sweet side, so I add a tad more sugar than I state in the recipe–which was my mother-in-law’s recipe.
If you like it a bit more tart, then add more vinegar. Since the recipe doesn’t rely on precise proportions to turn out right, there’s a lot of leeway to tailor it to you or your family’s personal taste.
The Recipe
Red Cabbage
Ingredients
- 4 cups shredded red cabbage
- 1/2 cup red onion thinly sliced
- 1 granny smith apple peeled and shredded
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbs red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 2 tbs butter divided
Instructions
- Melt 1 tbs of the butter in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the red onion, grated apple and the garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes, or until the onion begins to get tender.
- Add the sugar, salt, vinegar, water, bay leaf and caraway seed. Stir to combine.
- Add the red cabbage and toss to coat with the liquid. Cover and reduce heat to low and cook for approximately 20 minutes or until cabbage is tender.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of butter and stir well.
PattiAnn says
How about using the IP for this cabbage?
I think it would intensify the flavors.
I also like my cabbage really tender, so I’m going to give it a try.
And I always add clove to my red cabbage as my German grandmother did.
Thanks Judith for reminding me how good red cabbage is.
Judith Hanneman says
The IP is a great idea PattiAnn!!!
Angelina says
We love Braised Red Cabbage, and we often make it when we’re serving pork or beef. I was taught to make it by my mom. We start out by frying up some bacon (the leanest we could find) sliced into 1″ pieces. We don’t drain the bacon drippings (unless there’s a lot) and we then proceed with the rest of the recipe. We also add a bit sugar, a lrg. bay leaf, and a few allspice, along with what you also added. When done, we give it a some ‘body’ by adding a little slurry’ . The bacon definitely adds a lot of flavor to this dish. Whenever I brought this to an event, there were never any leftovers, and I was always asked for the recipe.
Judith Hanneman says
The bacon adds tons of flavor!!
Bert says
What is slurry?
Judith Hanneman says
A mixture of cornstarch & water.