Cabbage and the vagaries of memory

“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were." Marcel Proust

This was going to be a relatively straightforward post inspired by the idea that 2026 is the year of the cabbage - which I I have been mulling over for a while - which would then be an occasion to talk about my favourite recipe for cabbage and finally being nudged into action about these things by Ottolenghi's latest newsletter which talked about all things cabbage.

However, the major outcome of all of this is a realisation that my long-term memory - which I thought was pretty much intact and correct, is completely untrustworthy.

I know my short-term memory is declining slightly - beyond the lifelong things like forgetting a word briefly, or wandering into a room and forgetting why you have gone there. Nowadays those words fall into a hole, and are not recovered for a very long time - maybe a day later. However, I did think that what I did remember from the past - obviously selective - was always correct.

And the example on hand is this cabbage recipe. For I began my 'research' with checking out the recipe - Alsatian cabbage.

The British are renowned for boiling cabbage to death, and I fear my mother did this too, although she did use the cabbage water for making the gravy because she knew that the 'goodness' in the cabbage - Vitamin C, I think she thought it was - had leached out into the water. But yes she just boiled the cabbage. And we didn't mind it. It might not have been a favourite, but it was OK.

So when as a young wife trying to please my man, and impress our friends with exciting new recipes from all of those famous cooks back then, I made something that I decided to accompany with cabbage, searched my then small collection of cookbooks and found this recipe. I was so pleased with it, that it has become my go to way of cooking cabbage. I know that it is not exactly as it was written back then. Well recipes evolve over time with use., so I thought I would see how much I had changed it, and looked it up.

I was absolutely convinced that the recipe came from the Penguin Cordon Bleu Cookery book - and indeed on page 337 there is a recipe for Cabbage 'Alsacienne'. But it's not my recipe. It's not just a slightly different recipe. There are major components that are missing. Let me explain.

My current recipe is as follows: I shred my cabbage, discarding the thick white bits. Sometimes I briefly blanch it, sometimes not. In a large pot - for I am usually cooking this for a crowd - mostly at Christmas - I melt some butter, and soften a sliced onion and a sliced, peeled and cored Granny Smith apple or two. When they are soft I add the cabbage and stir it all together. Then I pour over some lemon juice, butter thickly a piece of greaseproof paper, which is then placed over the top of the pan and held in place by the lid. The whole thing is cooked on a very low heat for a long time - at least half an hour - without uncovering and looking, because then you will lose the moisture. And you end up with soft, buttery and slightly tangy cabbage.

It looks a bit like this recipe for Apple braised green cabbage from the Frugal Hausfrau, but it's really not the same recipe. I could find no recipe anything like mine really. It's brownish - golden if you are feeling generous, and every now and then I try and make it look a bit more tempting with some sprinkled parsley, but its looks belie its taste, which is really, really good. I vaguely remember one guest saying that it was the best cabbage she had tasted.

Before I get to the recipe in my book as it actually is, let me explain how I thought my current version varies from the original that exists in my memory.

The apples in the original were left quartered, not thin slices I seem to recall. I turned to thin slices because I wanted the apples to almost melt into the whole - ditto the onions. The lemons, as I recall took the form of those lemon segments that you slice from between the membranes. Using just lemon juice is lazy I guess, but it also does provide at least a little bit of liquid. Otherwise the recipe is the same - and crucially because of the greaseproof paper slathered with butter over the top.

This is another similar recipe but it's just cabbage braised in butter, (Butter braised cabbage - Farm Belly) with a final addition of apple cider vinegar. The relative greenness is down to less butter and shorter cooking.

On the opposite page to their Cabbage 'Alsacienne' the Cordon Bleu ladies have a recipe for Buttered cabbage and for a moment I thought I had got the two recipes confused. But no - this one has an onion stuck with a clove, and some sugar, but it does have a greaseproof paper top - not spread with butter though.

So no - it had to be the original Cabbage 'Alsacienne'. But it can't be. There is no buttered greaseproof paper and not only does it have a sliced onion to soften it also has some sliced celery. I swear I have never used any celery in this recipe. It also has a glass of wine and a glass of stock, with a teaspoon of vinegar or a squeeze of lemon. And you only cook it for 15 to 20 minutes.

Also rather weirdly I seem to remember you did something with crumbled hard-boiled egg-yolk. A garnish probably, and something that I have never done.

I have now searched every single cookbook in my collection that this recipe could remotely have come from - from Elizabeth David et al. from the 60s and 70s, to Beverley Sutherland Smith. Though it has to be from the 60s because I remember serving it in England to our friends. I am distressed. Mostly because there is indeed a recipe where I thought it was, but it's not at all the same thing. And where on earth did I get that idea of buttering a piece of greaseproof paper and draping it over the top? I would not have thought of that myself, and I can think of no other recipe that uses that technique.

I suppose it is possible it came from a magazine or a newspaper Sunday supplement, but why is it lodged so securely in my head as being from Cordon Bleu? It makes one wonder what other memories are so completely wrong.

I also was somewhat surprised to find no recipes online that closely resembled my imaginary one. Yes there was braised cabbage - mostly red I have to say - but not many with lemons, butter and apples, Alsatian or otherwise. However I did find some modern 'Alsatian' in two cases, and buttery in another example.

First we have Rachel Khoo doing something really rather different but it comes from her visit to Alsace, and she does call it Alsatian noodles even though, it's not really Alsatian at all because:

"Alsatian food is hearty fare, so I soon found myself craving something crunchy and fresh. Alsatian egg noodles reminded me of those used in the classic Thai street food dish, pad Thai. And so, using local ingredients, the pad Alsacien was born." Rachel Khoo

It doesn't really belong does it?

Then there's this Alsatian cabbage from a restaurant I think, called Homestead Bar à Vin of which they say:

"Listen, this isn’t the most photogenic dish, but it’s a must-try. ~ Alsatian cabbage ~ We marinate the cabbage for 24 hours in a brine, serve it on a grainy mustard cream, add some parsley and Gruyère, and torch that baby. The result is potentially the best cabbage you’ve ever tasted!"

Then there's this Braised cabbage with miso butter from This Delicious Life, which doesn't mention Alsace, but in some ways - in spite of the miso - is nearer to my recipe. There's a nod to the apples in the use of apple cider vinegar, and modern ingredients such as avocado oil, soy sauce and sesame seeds, but a similar idea I guess.

And wedges again, which is trendy and here we move into the 2026 as the year of the cabbage thing.

I think I first heard of this in an article in Business Insider that Smitten Kitchen linked to - alas I can now no longer access it because it's behind a pay wall and I don't have the original Smitten Kitchen link.

However, since then I have seen it here and there. The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, Coles Magazine ... It is indeed true that the cabbage is an extremely versatile, healthy and cheap vegetable. Did I say cheap? No longer alas. For some reason cabbage has soared in price over the last few months. But then it hasn't been the right season I suppose. I wait to see if it goes down in price in autumn and winter. At the moment it's a very high $4.20 for half a cabbage.

Apparently this trend seems to have been started in the fashion world, not the food world. Initially I think with the Cabbage bag from a designer called Sandy Liang (does it look like a cabbage?), and then in an advertising campaign by Burberry at King Charles' Highgrove estate - featuring cabbages:

Those Burberry photographs, by the way, were taken by Annie Liebowitz - one of the world's top photographers.

So Vogue got in on the act - well they do do food as well as fashion - and suddenly 2026 is the year of the cabbage. We'll see.

In a mock interview on the topic The Guardian had this to say:

"I guess if some silly fashion trend gets more people eating cabbage, that’s no bad thing. Oh, no one’s actually eating it, at least not in the UK. According to figures from the government’s 2025 Family Food survey, cabbage consumption has fallen by 80% since 1974.

Its appeal is becoming more selective, let’s say. Exactly – that’s what makes it chic."

And delicious. which is not usually tongue in cheek, may be, when it says:

"We’re tipping celtuce (a thick rooty lettuce also known as stem lettuce) to ride to the top of the vegie hit list. Watch this space." delicious.

YEARS GONE BY

April 12

2025 - Nothing

2024 - Chermoula - and fish

2023 - They say I'm a good cook - but ...

2022 - A street library offering and a family saga

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Brulée - a first recipe from Donna Hay

2018 - Missing

2017 - Batch brew coffee