These should first be scraped or pared. Then cut into pieces, and stewed as above.
BOILED CABBAGE.—
All cabbage should be well washed, and boiled in a large quantity of water with a little salt; the loose or faded leaves being stripped from the outside. They should always be cut or split in two, or in four pieces if very large. Cut the stalk short, and split it up to where the leaves begin. Put it on in boiling water, and keep it boiling steadily till quite done, which will not be till the stalk is tender throughout. If a young summer cabbage, split it in half, and when well boiled, and drained and pressed in a cullender, serve it up with a few bits of cold fresh butter, laid inside among the leaves. Season it with pepper. This is a much nicer and easier way, than to make drawn butter, and pour over the outside of the cabbage.
Sprouts and very young greens, require nothing more than to be well washed, boiled and drained. In the country, cabbage sprouts are commonly boiled with bacon.
Savoy cabbage is considered the finest sort. It is a late autumn and winter cabbage. If very large, split it in four. Do not boil it with meat. The fat will render it strong and unwholesome. Still worse, when melted butter is added to a cabbage already saturated with the fat of corned beef.
AN EXCELLENT WAY OF BOILING CABBAGE.—
Having trimmed the cabbage, and washed it well in cold water, (examining the leaves to see that no insects are lurking among them,) cut it almost into quarters, but do not divide it entirely down at the stem, which should be cut off just below the termination of the leaves. Let it lie an hour in a pan of cold water. Have ready a pot full of boiling water, seasoned with a small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the cabbage into it, and let it boil for an hour and a half, skimming it occasionally. Then take it out; put it into a cullender to drain, and when all the hot water has drained off; set it under the hydrant. Let the hydrant run on it, till the cabbage has become perfectly cold all through. If you have no hydrant, set it under a pump, or keep pouring cold water on it from a pitcher. Then, having thrown out all the first water, and washed the pot, fill it again, and let the second water boil. During this time the cabbage under the hydrant will be growing cold. Then put it on again in the second water, and boil it two hours, or two and a half. Even the thickest part of the stalk must be perfectly tender all through. When thoroughly done, take up the cabbage, drain it well through the cullender, pressing it down with a broad ladle to squeeze out all the moisture; lay it in a deep dish, and cut it entirely apart, dividing it into quarters. Lay some bits of fresh butter among the leaves, add a little pepper, cover the dish, and send it to table hot.
Cooked in this manner it will be made perfectly wholesome, and the usually unpleasant cabbage smell will be rendered imperceptible. We recommend it highly.