I like cabbage a lot. I even eat big wedges of it raw, particularly in the early summer and late fall, when the heads are at their sweetest and least pungent. But many people find it rather too strong for their liking. What follows is a little description of what produces this pungent taste and how to minimize it if you find yourself with a cabbage that is stronger than you like.
(Just in passing and without being disloyal to one of my favorite vegetables, I must admit that the defensive chemicals used by the cabbage inspired a notorious man-made version – the mustard gas of World War One.)
The cabbage is merely trying to defend itself against the many creatures that would like to eat it. It has developed a clever two-part chemical defense. Every cabbage leaf features packets of some strongly flavored chemicals. The leaf also contains packets of special enzymes. When the leaf is cut, the contents of both packets are mixed and a chemical reaction produces bitter products from the two ingredients. Actually, every member of the cabbage family, including brussel sprouts, broccoli, and mustard greens, among others, have these defensive chemicals. Slight variations in these chemicals are what gives these different vegetables their distinctive tastes.
So how can you cope with an over-bitter cabbage? If you are using it raw in a coleslaw or the like, slicing it finely will produce a lot of these bitter chemicals. If you then add an acidic dressing, you will make things worse (some of the bitter chemicals increase six fold). But there is a simple step that both improves the slaw and removes most of the bitterness. Just put the finely sliced cabbage in a bowl of cold water to soak for a while. This not only crisps the cabbage strips, but washes away much of the bitterness. Then pour off the water, towel dry the cabbage, and add your dressing.
When cooking cabbage, the cooking time matters. Again, the easiest way to minimize the bitter chemicals is to soak or boil the cabbage in a very large amount of water. This water is then thrown away. But you should also be careful not to cook it too long. If you do, some of the sulfurous chemicals in the cabbage will link to form a trisulfide that is responsible for the strong lingering smell of overcooked cabbage. So follow the time recommendations of your recipe to the letter. You’ll have delicious cabbage and few lingering smells.
Ifeel bad having described only the difficult aspects of one of my favorite vegetables. So please remember that cabbages are often sweet and delicious. Those grown in cool, damp weather are particularly mild. But with a little care, you can enjoy them all year round.
Credit for the information in this article must go to Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Scribner, 2004.
-SD
