Needed: a pickled red cabbage recipe please :-)

[pb1uk]

Hello,

My fiancee and myself are growing our own for the first time and currently have 5 massive red cabbages ready for harvesting! As we couldn't possibly eat that many in such a short time i've been looking for a good pickling recipe and haven't been able to find much out there. I'm looking to be able to jar the pickled cabbage up and not freeze it so it would be more accessible that way.

We like pretty much anything and any flavour so any suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Peter

[Bayleaf]

Kept cool, hard cabbage has an enormously long shelf-life - white cabbage for coleslaw is cold-stored (commercially) for over half a year.
I haven't used this recipe but it comes from a very reliable source -
Shred the cabbage finely, remove any over-large/thick pieces. Place in a large bowl with approximately 2oz salt for each 1lb of cabbage and leave for 24 hours. Drain and carefully wash off any remaining salt crystals. Pack tightly into sterilised jars (must have vinegar-proof lids), and cover with vinegar.
You may want to use spiced vinegar. One recipe (of many) - 2 pints vinegar, 1/4 oz cinnamon, 1/4 whole cloves, 12 peppercorns, 1/4 oz whole mace, 1/4oz whole allspice, 1 or 2 bay leaves. Ideally this needs to soak for a few weeks, but you could experiment with simmering.
I love pickled cabbage and if you look at the ingredients on many shop-bought jars, they include just cloves (extract no doubt) - very nice.

[Hilary B]

Pickled cabbage has a shorter shelf-life than most pickles, a matter of months rather than a year or two.

[jackie j]

I did pickled red cabbage last year and it went a very funny brownish colour very quickly. As did my beetroot once opened, so what did I do wrong

[Bayleaf]

Red cabbage is reckoned to last about 3-4 months max. It tends to go blue when cooked or open to the air. Not sure about the brown colour and from memory (I have none in the cupboard at the moment), neither shop-boughts have any colours or preservatives etc., other than the vinegar. Possibly not enough water removed before pickling, so the vinegar was diluted too much by juices????????

[Hilary B]

Red cabbage is reckoned to last about 3-4 months max. It tends to go blue when cooked or open to the air. Not sure about the brown colour and from memory (I have none in the cupboard at the moment), neither shop-boughts have any colours or preservatives etc., other than the vinegar. Possibly not enough water removed before pickling, so the vinegar was diluted too much by juices????????

Sounds likely, but also, a lot of recipes recommend simmering the vinegar with the spices. This 'dilutes' the vinegar too, since the acetic acid is more volatile than water, so it gets lost by evaporation when the vinegar is heated. I always use commercially made pickling vinegar, mainly to avoid problems of acid strength. Not all 'ordinary' vinegar has a high enough acid content in the first place.....

Not sure why red cabbage would go blue except in the presence of something that neutralises the acid (I had an entertaining time once playing with red-cabbage juice, vinegar and washing soda, the cabbage juice acts like litmus!)

[pb1uk]

Kept cool, hard cabbage has an enormously long shelf-life - white cabbage for coleslaw is cold-stored (commercially) for over half a year.
I haven't used this recipe but it comes from a very reliable source -
Shred the cabbage finely, remove any over-large/thick pieces. Place in a large bowl with approximately 2oz salt for each 1lb of cabbage and leave for 24 hours. Drain and carefully wash off any remaining salt crystals. Pack tightly into sterilised jars (must have vinegar-proof lids), and cover with vinegar.
You may want to use spiced vinegar. One recipe (of many) - 2 pints vinegar, 1/4 oz cinnamon, 1/4 whole cloves, 12 peppercorns, 1/4 oz whole mace, 1/4oz whole allspice, 1 or 2 bay leaves. Ideally this needs to soak for a few weeks, but you could experiment with simmering.
I love pickled cabbage and if you look at the ingredients on many shop-bought jars, they include just cloves (extract no doubt) - very nice.

Thanks very much for the recipe, i've got it jarred up now.

Do you know how long it will take to mature?

Peter