Stewed Cabbage

History

This is Eliza Acton's receipt "Stewed Cabbage" as printed in Modern Cookery for Private Families, an English domestic cookbook first published by Longmans in London in 1845. The method she gives is: cut out the stalk and slice a firm cabbage into very thin strips; wash, drain, and boil the strips in salted, skimmed water for about ten to fifteen minutes until tender; press the water out and chop them slightly; then stew the cabbage in about two ounces of butter with pepper and salt until fairly dry, shake in a tablespoonful of flour, and add "by slow degrees a cup of thick cream," with veal gravy or good white sauce offered as substitutes for the cream.

The recipe text quoted here is verified verbatim against the digitized book text; that scan is the 1882 "New Edition," so it reflects the recipe as carried in the book's later printings, which for this dish matches our rendering.

The historical record I could open does not document who ate this dish, in what households it was served, or that it carried any social status or class meaning. Beyond the recipe itself and its appearance in Acton's book, no per-dish history is documented.

Ingredients

• 1–2 head cabbage, fine and firm
• water
• 2 ounces butter
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup thick cream

Instructions

1. Remove the stalk entirely from a fine firm cabbage (or use two cabbages) and slice it into very thin strips.
2. Wash and drain the slices thoroughly.
3. Throw the cabbage into a large pan of boiling salted water that has been skimmed.
4. Cook until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Pour the cabbage into a sieve or strainer and press the water thoroughly from it.
6. Chop the cabbage slightly.
7. Put about 2 ounces of butter into a very clean saucepan and dissolve it over the fire.
8. Add the cabbage with sufficient pepper and salt to season it.
9. Stir it over a clear fire until it appears tolerably dry.
10. Shake in a tablespoonful of flour and turn the whole well.
11. Add the cream (or veal gravy or white sauce, if preferred) by slow degrees, stirring as you go.