Saturday 29 September 2012

Of Cabbages And Other Cranky Crinkly Creatures


Wirsingkohl - Savoy Cabbage


"You're making some wonderful smells again", Beloved says, coming into the kitchen from outside.
"What is it?"

They say  'The way to a man's heart goes through his stomach', and Beloved is no exception. Always good and appreciative of food, in spite of being on the thin side, his tummy is very important to him and he likes my cooking.

I agree that the aroma of gently frying sliced onions, lardons (bacon cubes) and a squashed clove of garlic or three sets my own gastric juices flowing. I start off nearly every casserole dish this way, adding browned beef or lamb and their requisite herbs and spices as I go along. A generous slug of Beloved's home made fruit wine serves to deglaze and braise the whole thing. I use very heavy black cast iron pots and pans; I now need both hands and a fair bit of hefting to get them out and into position. They have  tightly fitting lids, preventing flavours from escaping during the process of slow-cooking.

My mother taught me how to make stews by default. It wasn't that I ever paid any attention at the time or that she made a point of explaining what she was doing, but somehow, in spite of our mutual lack of interest in handing over the few secrets of her culinary expertise, I picked up the odd pointer which stuck. I suppose being in the room in which cooking is done, automatically leaves an impression on the bystander, particularly when the process is repeated time after time during childhood.

Mother had had to learn to cook early, her own mother died young - I never knew her -,  which meant her cooking was poor people's cooking. Although grandfather kept geese and chickens and cultivated his own vegetables, mother, as a child, lived through WWI and grew up between the wars; at neither time was food plentiful in rural villages.

Girls and women learned to adapt. The area of the left bank of the Lower Rhine is a fertile plain, to this day it is agricultural in character, in spite of the nearness of the industrial Ruhrgebiet on the other side of the river. Main crops were potatoes and cereals like rye, barley and oats as well as the king of local produce, the humble head of cabbage, white and purple and savoy, the absolute staples without which rural populations wouldn't have survived. Cabbage is nourishing, it is full of vitamins and minerals, and filling to boot. An essential vegetable to help poor people to survive lean times. I made its acquaintance after WWII and, although I never thought of it as a delicacy, I got used to it and ate it without complaint.

White cabbage was shredded and eventually became Sauerkraut, red cabbage was braised with apples, a small handful of raisins, a few cloves, a dash of vinegar and a teaspoonful of sugar. These would be served with potatoes and some kind of pork produce, like Speck, (bacon), Eisbein, (pickled pork knuckle), or Bratwurst  (German sausage). Savoy cabbage, on the other hand, became a meal in itself. A braised onion and as much bacon or ham as you could afford were the base for the shredded, crinkly, deep green leaves. Mother stirred the pot until the cabbage had wilted and the slivers of meat and onion were evenly mixed. If she had a ladleful of stock - or a dissolved stock cube -, she added it at this point, as well as a diced potato or two layered on top. It took about an hour at the lowest heat to turn these ingredients into a steaming, fragrant mush; if necessary, she'd help it along with a deft twist or two of the masher. There was never any of that nasty, disagreeable stink of cabbage, that is said to hang about for hours, denoting squalor and poverty.

Long after I had left home, and after my father had died, it was aunt Josephine's favourite meal. Mother and Josephine didn't really like each other very much, but they lived within easy cycling distance of each other.  Josephine was an invalid - although mother often complained that she was making the utmost use of her disabilities - and my father's sister, tall and thin, with a black-eyed stare that could pin you down and render you immobile as surely as a lepidopterist does to his moths and butterfly specimens. Several times a week mother cooked lunch for Josephine; she'd rush the meal over to her in a basket hanging from the handlebar of her bicycle, then rush home again to eat her own meal, which she'd kept warm in the oven. I never asked, nor was the information ever offered, why the two old ladies didn't simply eat together at Josephine's. In fact, I've only just realised how ludicrous the whole situation was. Aunt Josephine was well off and could easily have ordered in food every day, but she said nobody could cook the old-fashioned dishes like mother. Mother frequently complained that the whole thing was getting too much for her but still she complied.

I have never preserved Sauerkraut and rarely cook red cabbage. We eat both, but I prefer to buy the finished article in jars imported all the way from Germany. But, like mother, I cook Savoy cabbage myself in winter. Beloved, who is a true Englishman and therefore dislikes the thought of boiled cabbage, eats this Eintopfgericht  (One-pot-dish) with pleasure, provided I don't present him with it too often during the cold months.



55 comments:

  1. This post made me want to go out and buy a head of each! I make Rodkol often in the winter - some Red Currant Jelly, grated apple, vinegar and red cabbage and we have a treat for The Great Dane. I also make what we call Brown Cabbage, which sounds a lot like your Eintopfgericht. Such homey foods make everyone feel cosy at this time of year. Funny about your mother and aunt - some habits, even if disliked and resented, are too ingrained to give up.

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  2. Beautifully written, your story made me hungry. I'm a terrible cook but I do love cabbage and I cook it at least once a week. It's cheap and healthy and easy to cook - and it's tasty!

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  3. groenekool of ook wel putjeskool raakt hier een beetje in de vergeethoek,maar is heerlijk met een stukje varkensvlees .of om irish stew te maken.

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  4. Wow, your post brought back memories of my growing up in a German house hold. My Parents come from East Prussia, and the foods you mentioned were also served in our house. My parents were farmers and knew how to make every kind of German food. I was always impressed as to how they remembered how to make all those different kinds of food. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. I love your memories mixed in with the food descriptions that I could almost smell all the way over here. I like cabbage soup with potatoes and carrots. Fall comes and out comes the soup pot! Thanks for sharing this wonderful post!! :)

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  6. You do make me want to cross the very nearby border to Germany right now and eat any of those cabbage dishes. You Germans cook cabbage better than anyone else in this world.

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  7. Frico, you remember well the years when you lived in poverty. So maybe you appreciate the food that you can buy now. When I've been to Munich I liked the stewed cabbage with bacon and white sauce!

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  8. I don't think I've ever tasted savoy cabbage. I like both white and red cabbage and have never minded the smell. :-)

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  9. From when I was just a tiny little Librarian (actually, even before I could read), I've always loved a good Eintopf, and still do! My Mum makes all sorts of cabbage during the colder half of the year, and I enjoy all of them, the green varieties being my favourites.
    An odd arrangement between your mother and your aunt Josephine, but not uncommon - people often do things that are incomprehensible to anyone else but themselves.

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  10. I enjoy cabbage...and all the slow cooked cabbage dishes....now.

    School dinner cabbage was dreadful. Our theory was that the cooks thought it the spawn of the devil and were determined to cook it until sure it was dead as on cabbage days the smell arose about 10.00 am and hung over the buildings in a foul miasma.

    I discovered cabbage at the hands of a lecturer from Czechoslovakia...and never looked back!

    Your post brought to mind recipes I haven't done for a while - thank you - and also made me think of making my own sauerkraut and the equivalent with beetroot once again as both are plentiful and cheap here.

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  11. It's been a long time since I cooked cabbage. mostly we use it for stuffed cabbage rolls and I used to make a dish that was boiled cabbage and potatoes mashed together that I liked fairly well. I do get tired of squash in the winter so perhaps it's time to resurrect cabbage in our kitchen.

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  12. oy you have successfully made me hungry and i can not even smell it...only imagine it...smiles...bacon and onions...mm....i like cabbage, i like cabbage rolls too...some really over cook it though and then i am not a fan but i am hungry...now...happy saturday ma'am

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  13. We love all types of cabbage and cook it in a variety of ways depending on the dish. We were only discussing last night how pleased we were with how the cabbages in the vegetable garden are 'heartening up".

    I no longer use my great heavy cooking pots, and your post brought home to me how much more delicious meals cooked in them are.

    The background to your post was so interesting Friko.

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  14. Stampot ! At its best when made with Boerenkool (Curly Kale) and eaten with smoked sausage and good mustard .
    It seems that everyone's hungry tonight !

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  15. Everything about this post was delicious. You left my mouth watering. I wish I could cook like that. I can't. I wasn't taught, nor did my mother cook in such a way. Her mother had been a wonderful cook, but I think my mother never really picked up the skill. Our meals were adequate, but I would never say they were savory.

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  16. Love white cabbage but not savoy. Never thought of adding cabbage to a stew or casserole...something to try!

    Anna :o]

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  17. HHHMMMmmm... Josephine clearly had something on your mother!!! I LOVE my own cooking - but most others who matter like it too, which is just as well for them!!!

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  18. Mmmm, I remember my mother and my grandmother making one-pot dishes when I was young and money was scarce. The very thought of those big iron pots and their fragrant contents makes me hungry.
    K

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  19. The texture of your words, your food, you memories, your life is nourishing indeed!


    Aloha from Honolulu,

    Comfort Spiral
    =^..^=

    > < } } ( ° >

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  20. This is the second post on cabbage that I've read this evening. The other was from a Swedish woman living in England. She hates any type of cooked cabbage. And then I come to your post, full of wonderful reminiscence and traditional recipes. I love cabbage - stuffed cabbage rolls, cabbage sauteed with onions and apples, and cabbage borscht. There are three Savoy cabbages remaining in my potager and I think part of one them will go to making Eintopfgericht in just the way you've written.

    Your mother and Aunt Josephine - so interesting.

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  21. That sounds great Friko. We also eat Savoy cabbages when we can get them. They grow best here in winter so are usually only grown then. I also like ordinary cabbage and, like you, my wife is a good cook too - Dave

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  22. Hi Friko .. love the thought of a good dish of ham and cabbage - I love fresh lightly boiled cabbage and eat that quite often. Your recipe sounds delicious and though it's early ... I rather wish it was supper time!

    Cheers Hilary

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  23. Did you save me a place at your table?? Love to come and partake!! The cabbage dish sounds wonderful!!
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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  24. Adding cabbage to a stew was one of my grandmother's treats. Mmm, I can taste it now. Thanks for the reminder.

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  25. I enjoy red cabbage and sauerkraut and fresh cabbage made into coleslaw. Actually I think I just like cabbage. And after reading your post I suddenly have a craving for it. Would love to try your mom's cabbage stew, it sounds so good.

    God bless.

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  26. What a wonderful post! I love a good coleslaw made with cabbage. I don't think I've ever had the savoy, and now that you've told how you fix your dish, I want to try it, especially since cooler weather is on the way.

    Have a great week ~ FlowerLady

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  27. School cabbage was always dreadful but now I eat it happily, raw or cooked, on its own or as an added ingredient. Winter salad is filling and satisfying.

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  28. Hello:
    Cabbage is, as you will know most certainly, a staple of the Hungarian diet and we have come to love it in all its forms. Surprisingly, Sauerkraut seldom features. As for red cabbage, slowly cooked in the oven with the addition of apples, is for us one of the all time favourite dishes of winter.

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  29. Well Friko, the moment that I saw that beautiful cabbage photograph, I knew that more treats were in store. I think that cabbages of all types are visually amazing from their exterior globe, right through the cross section views of their layers.

    And, as you well know, there are many delicious ways in which to prepare this vegetable. I am definitely making note of your Savoy recipe, and expect to be preparing my own version within a week or so. The shorter days, longer nights that now settle in are increasing my interests in soups, stews, casseroles, and even heating up the oven for a return to baking.

    Your family reminisces set off a few of my own. I cannot make potato soup without fond memories of my grandmother, who lived with us. The kitchen was mainly ruled by my grandmother's daughter (my mom) but there were a few meals that could only be made by Granny. Each one was a treat.

    xo

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  30. Friko, this was beautiful. I have always liked reading the stories from people's lives best. Memoir is my favorite among books to read -- even more than the academic treatises I am sometimes unaccountably drawn to in my search for truth and underlying meaning.

    I imagined you writing this with an easiness of spirit and I loved to read it. Thank you for taking the time to post it. Though the memories themselves, I suppose particularly of your mother cycling to pop off a meal for crotchety Aunt Josephine and then zooming back to eat her own meal in peace, served to amuse, entertain and, yes, even instruct, my favorite portion of your words was a single, immaculate metaphor:

    'They have tightly fitting lids, preventing flavours from escaping during the process of slow-cooking.'

    More than once, I have wished to lift a phrase or two from your writing and post it somewhere prominent to guide me. The words above will perform a steady service as I pick up my pen for my next project, and I thank you for it in advance.

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  31. Eintopfgericht, I've heard that before. We ate lots of potatoes and cabbage when I was growing up during WWII. We had our own vegetable garden and chickens and Mom, a former farm girl got a Jersey cow. Dad liked the Holstein cattle that are found all over Wisconsin, but Mom like the little red Jersey. As Dad couldn't tell a bull from a cow, she got her way. I love the reminisence. Dianne

    PS red cabbage is great for dying Easter eggs blue.

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  32. Friko your casserole sounds absolutely delicious - a recipe I'm going to try out. We survive here on most of our own vegetables. I'm not a fan of savoy cabbage (especially the way it was boiled yellow and watery in school days - but I like all the ingredients you've added into your dish. No wonder your Beloved's mouth was watering - so is mine.

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  33. I've seen those "funny cabbages" in the market, and hadn't had a clue what to call them. In my family cabbage usually was a side dish, done up with onions and sometimes a bit of carrot. Now and then my grandmother would make a pickled red cabbage dish, and I make a salad of finely chopped cabbage, carrot, celery, onion and bell pepper, marinated in a cooked vinegar dressing that includes celery seed and whole mustard. It's quite good, and stays in the fridge for a week or more - a boon for a lazy cook.

    The cast iron pots are the best, aren't they? We've just had our first "cold" front, and the windows are open. The time to change cooking styles has come, and I'll be trying some of your dishes, for sure.

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  34. Ahhh, the old dishes. My mother was a disinterested cook, but my grandmother slow-cooked stews and roasts on Sundays when we visited. My mouth waters now remembering the succulent smells from her kitchen. Unfortunately, I take after my mother.

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  35. Always enjoy when you share memories of growing up and how they have impacted adult life. Though my own paternal side is Welsh, somehow at Thanksgiving we always had a side dish of sauerkraut...I later was told it helped to balance the richness of the holiday meal. Never was sure how that tradition came about though. Here in Wisconsin, many residents claim German roots (our state being famous for beer and cheeses) and everywhere at summer's end, large heads of homegrown cabbage appear. Sauerkraut for the long winters and always cole slaw for our Friday fish fries. Unfortunately, I can no longer eat cabbages but the memories, like yours are always there.

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  36. I love cabbage and cooked some several days ago. Like you, onion, garlic and bacon and then I started adding a diced carrot and potatoe. Just me to feed and seems to make a healthy meal along with my Southern corn bread. I have never cooked a Savoy Cabbage. In the summer like cole slaw and also a comment from your post reminded me of the cabbage rolls I made years ago. They were stuffed with rice, onions, garlic and topped with some tomato sauce to simmer in oven.

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  37. i guess i only really learned how to cook when i left home - but even now i have to really be in the mood to make anything out of the ordinary.

    even so i guess i picked up a few things here and there along the way

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  38. Dear Friko, I've never heard of Savoy cabbage, so I'm glad you pictured it for us and then gave us the process of cooking it into a delicious dish that your husband likes. Your forays into the past interest me greatly as they are so different from mine. That's one of the wonders of blogging--we can expand our horizons and our understandings. Thank you. Peace.

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  39. I've never known a man not to be hopelessly drawn by bacon cubes. Manfred loves Eisbein. ACKCKKKK. I cook savoy in the winter too, with garlic & shallots. ~Mary

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  40. Dear Friko, you made me soooooooooooooo hungry! And yearning! Where I live now all those delicacies, of which I know and remember each and every one you described from childhood do not fit the climate most of the year - it is just too hot! But in the cooler months of our mild winter I cook it sometimes - the Eintopf! And surprisingly everyone loves it! My son says, those are probably his German genes causing him to get a liking to it! I made Sauerkraut as well three or four times in the more than 30 years I live here, but without the "proper" meat, it was never the same. Now I could find and buy this too here, we have Russian butcher shops where everything is available, unthinkable of years ago.
    Loved and enjoyed your post! :-)

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  41. Another cabbage-lover here - including pickled red cabbage. Your post has reconciled me to the idea of autumn and winter by reminding me of delicious comfort foods to come.

    There is something different about Savoy cabbage - is its composition lacking in whatever makes the smell in over-boiled ordinary cabbages, or is it perhaps the texture (I can't see it ever getting slimy)?

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  42. Never thought anyone could write so well on so simple a subject!

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  43. I learned to cook by observing in our kitchen. Mom did all the cooking and she let me do all the baking. She prepared all the root vegetables like parsnips, turnips, rutabega and carrots. She also did many cabbage dishes. I learned to love cabbage and your wonderful post brought back memories of meals during the war years and after. I don't think that younger people use cabbage very much in their cooking today. They don't know what they are missing.
    I agree with Grumpy Old Ken...beautifully written.
    Balisha

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  44. Josie and our friend Jackie think boiled cabbage is an aphrodisiac, and, as they are both British, I had to ask Josie why Beloved might think otherwise. "It's because he had it for school lunch," she snappily replied. I'm not quite so enamored as they are of boiled cabbage, but I would certainly have no objection whatsoever to your Eintopfgericht. As an aside, German food was a larger than usual feature of my American childhood. I feigned to like sauerkraut, though I'm not so sure I really did. Schaum Torte, though, now, that's the ticket!

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  45. I never gave much thought when I cooked these. Well written. :)

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  46. Sauerkraut I grew to love while working in Germany. and I make braised red cabbage from time to time. But this was of cooking savoy cabbage is new to me and I really must try it, as DH and I are great cabbage lovers.

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  47. I do love a crunchy salad of raw red cabbage with raisins.

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  48. I hated all forms of cabbage until I tried cooking it myself and discovered that it didn't have to be boiled for hours, which is how my mother and grandmother cooked it.
    Really enjoyed this post, and thanks for the inspiration. I hadn't decided what to have for dinner tonight but now I'm going to make a slow-cooking casserole and fill my kitchen with appetizing smells.

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  49. I jotted down your red cabbage recipe, Friko and the name for those square fatty bits of bacon here in Newfoundland are "Scrunchions" a rather lovely word. Served with grilled cod which is a heavenly taste.

    A friend of German background served me the savoy cabbage dish a few times. She would always save the pickle juice from her jars and toss some in.

    I make a rather lovely cabbage curry myself. I don't know anyone else who makes it so I view it as mein own.

    XO
    WWW

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  50. I love Eintopf and Bratwurst. I also love cooking. It changed a lot in the past years, women spent more time in the kitchen. Nowadays the most people only heat up some instant meals. That's actually sad, because it can be fun, even more when you do it with or for someone.

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  51. I don't seem to have an e address for you, but look forward to seeing you next week or whenever you have a gap in your diary... Our plan is to wander down the Thames with that Oldi Woman. So, Dorchester, Wallingford, Goring, Henley, Marlow, Windsor, Hampton Court. If none of the above appeal, then Paddington. I can't give you dates, because it depends on the weather and the river. But if you tell us what day suits you, we'll tell you where we are.

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  52. I love cabbage and want to try your method with Savoy. And I love the mixture of memoir and cookery in your post.

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  53. Such a lovely piece of writing, Friko. What strikes me the most is how seamlessly you blend in food and memory here, perhaps the two most important ingredients for human survival. Although I have never cooked or eaten a savoy cabbage, your post makes me want to taste some of that great stew.

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  54. What a splendid memory and story. And you tell it so well. I can almost smell it from here, far across the pond. There is something about certain foods and smells that take us back to our childhoods, isn't there? Much of my baking prowess was learned in my grandmother's kitchen. I wish I'd paid better attention to her canning!

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  55. I just came across this post comparing cabbages and Marie Antoinette - of course I had to bring it to you!

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