Saturday, August 1, 2009

Firsts on the First - Preserving Cabbage

I've grown cabbage before, but only enough to eat. This year we planted quite a bit more in the spring, and started some from seed a few weeks ago for a fall crop. There is no way we are going to eat all that cabbage. Time to learn to preserve it!

A little over a week ago, we attended a play date with a group of friends. Hot dogs were grilled, and everyone brought a side dish to share. There was a bowl of coleslaw there that looked a little different than what I expect coleslaw to look like. I'm adventurous, so I added some of it to my hot dog. (It is a West Virginia custom, but one I've thoroughly embraced since living here.) It was different, but absolutely delicious.

Imagine my delight, knowing that I have a lot of cabbage, to find that it was a home canned slaw. Crystal was kind enough to share the recipe with me.

Slaw
1 medium cabbage
1 large carrot
1 green pepper
1 small onion
1 tsp salt
-syrup-
1 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp mustard seed
*Boil syrup ingredients together one minute.
*let cool.
*shred together vegetables
*add salt
*let stand one hour
*Drain water from veggies
*rinse twice
*drain well
*pack tightly in pint jars
*pour enough syrup in each jar to fill space and bring to correct head space.
*seal
*process in BWB 15m.
*** Use as is or with mayo
My head of cabbage was fairly large. I doubled the other ingredients to accommodate. I did have some extra syrup left at the end, but just used it to make some fresh slaw for dinner.

I used the food processor to chop all the vegetables. The slicing blade worked very well for the cabbage, and the chopping blade did the job on the carrots. I used the grater on the onion and peppers, and I thought they were too fine that way. Next time I will simply chop those vegetables too.

I also packed mine in quart jars, and increased the boiling time to 20 minutes. My yield was three quarts.

And as if trying one new thing in a day weren't enough, I tried sauerkraut in a jar. I saw this recipe over at Laura Williams Musings last summer, when I had very little cabbage. This is a very simple recipe. Click on over there to see it.

I can't say for sure my cabbage preserving was a success, since we have not yet tasted the finished product. They sure do look pretty in the jars though!




How about you? Try anything new recently? Won't you share with us by leaving your link? Just click on the Mr. Linky image below!

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. We are drowning in cabbage from our CSA and I have no idea what to do with it. I am trying to make old-fashioned sauerkraut and have a batch weighted down on the counter right now. Not sure if it's going to come out or not...

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  2. Thanks so much for posting this one! I have 8 cabbage plants that are going to be ripe at the same time and I'm going to be giving this a try.

    I appreciate all you do with this site!

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  3. Thanks for linking to my Kraut recipe!

    It really is easy and makes some delicious sauerkraut to boot!!

    Enjoy!
    Laura

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  4. Checking back in with you to see how you liked the kraut you made.

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  5. Laura, I like it. I think it is different than what I'm used to. I'd like to try fermenting some sometime, but this is a quick and easy way to preserve the cabbage and it is good too.

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  6. The longer you let it set in the jars before you open and use it, the better it is.

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