Bile Them Cabbage Down

Fried, stewed or pickled cabbage is a mainstay of the mountain diet.  After I shared my daddy’s New Year’s Day meal last week, I was surprised how many of you commented that you always kick off the year eating cabbage.  But I shouldn’t have been surprised.

For the same reasons black eyed peas and salt-cured pork were eaten regularly in the winter months, cabbage would be too.  Late cabbage can be folded in a hole (whilst still planted on the other end) can be enjoyed pretty much the whole winter.  Just as I mentioned last week, without the luxury of imported foods – even imported from warmer, deep-south states - Appalachians spent the winter months eating those foods they could preserve one way or another.  Then just as soon as you’re safe from a hard freeze, little cabbage plants can be planted – they’re often one of the first things planted in the garden.  So if you’ve eaten up all the cabbage you wintered, hang on, there’ll be more in a couple of months.

Cabbage is a very old food and is eaten around the world.  In fact, one of my personal favorites are egg rolls – this wasn’t a food traditionally found on Appalachian tables, owing to the Chinese immigration patterns not reaching the Eastern US until after World War II, and most likely not until the 1960’s. Yet their ancient food combines pork and cabbage in a bread-like wrapper and deep fried.  What could be more southern?  I had a chance to talk with a couple of Chinese ladies and asked if cabbage is really something they eat a lot of.  They explained that in the northern provinces where the temperatures get very cold, cabbage is a mainstay.  They even knew about burying the heads, just the way we do on the mountain.

Of course Sauerkraut (we universally just call it Kraut on the mountain) is the pickled version of the vegetable and while the word is German, the food is more likely Chinese.  Of course, the Germans do love it and in fact it’s a traditional New Year’s food for them as well for the same superstitious hope of good fortune. 

Today’s kale-eating, smoothy-drinking society probably sneers at hog jowl and black eyed peas – and if they ever smelled cabbage stewing they’d no doubt call the health department.  However, you can’t argue with the wisdom in eating this vegetable which is packed with vitamins and is high in fiber, antioxidants and polyphenols.  (Just by way of confession, I can hardly spell those words and had to look up polyphenols to make sure it was something I could mention in a family-friendly blog.  It seems safe enough to say, but experts seem to still be guessing what these micronutrients do except they’re pretty sure it’s all good.)

Of course, our affinity for frying foods extends to all vegetables and a whole lot of fruits.  Many readers who reported eating cabbage on New Year’s Day were frying it.  Now, I do wish you would tell me why it’s Fried Cabbage but Kil’t Lettuce when the process is about the same – chop vegetable, pour in hot bacon grease?