Pepper Slaw, Pickled Cabbage

The sugar and vinegar makes this a sweet and sour side dish that was found in Pennsylvania Dutch and German meals. It is different from creamy coleslaw.

A few new talks have been added, including Saturday, so I am putting out a fast post before Sunday.

New talks - Two talks on Maple syrup; The Politics of Food; Tea for Dummies; The 1830 Beer House Act; more.

My grandmother's one set of grandparents came over from Germany in 1870, her other grandparents' families were also Germans from much earlier. So she did alot with sweet and sour (pickled beet eggs, hot bacon dressing on dandelion leaves, etc). Her Pepper Slaw had shredded cabbage, green bell pepper (she didn't use red bell peppers) chopped fine and a carrot, stir in salt. Heat cider vinegar (~2/3 or 3/4C), water (~1/3 or 1/4C) and sugar (~1C) until the sugar is dissolved, then pour over the greens. Add freshly grated black peppercorns. Sit all day or overnight.

Pepper Slaw Relish
Chop fine a head of cabbage with one red and one green pepper, season with pepper and salt, and add a teaspoonful each of celery and mustard seed. Put in jars and cover with vinegar or use after standing a few hours.
Home cookery : collection of tried recipes from many households / selected by the ladies of the Newton Universalist Church, Newtonville, Mass. 1899 3d ed

Pepper Cabbage
Cut fine three small heads of cabbage, two stalks of celery, one-half dozen peppers; rub a handful of salt through the cabbage; add celery and peppers and one pound of sugar; mix all well together and add one quart of vinegar. -Mrs. C. E. B.
The Home Adviser. Ladies’ Aid Society of Olivet Methodist Episcopal Church. Coatesville, Pa. 1911 (east of Lancaster)

Pickled Red Cabbage - British version, not German... no sugar!
This is the most common of all pickles, and assuredly one of the most agreeable. It has often been placed in a line with the sour krout of the Germans; though this latter is a disagreeable preparation of fermented cabbage without vinegar... Pickled cabbage is despised in favour of this German abomination; and yet to our particular liking, and, as it seems from the immense quantity made and consumed, to the liking of the majority of the English, pickled cabbage is one of the most agreeable, as it is one of the most unpretending of pickles.

Cut it into slices for pickling, and as you cut it, put it in layers into a colander, strewing a handful of salt upon each layer. After letting it drain a couple of days, put it into a stone jar, with a beetroot sliced. Boil a sufficient quantity of vinegar, with a sliced nutmeg, a little allspice, a good handful of peppercorns, and a bunch of tarragon. Pour the boiling-hot vinegar over the cabbage. When quite cold, cork and bladder the jar.
The Magazine of Domestic Economy (Aug 1838) 1839

THIS WEEK'S TALKS

Mar 18 Sat 7-12AM North Africa and the Grain Supply of the city of Rome. “How Ancient North Africa got rich from supplying grain to the city of Rome.” Dr. Birgitta Hoffmann. MANCENT, The Manchester ContinuingEducationNetwork £35. 5 hours HERE

Mar 18 Sat 12:15 Sugar Bush and Maple Syrup Tour. “Sugar Bush at Agape Valley, located in the Niagara Peninsula near the village of Fonthill, Ontario.” Heygo HERE

Mar 19 Sun 4 Tea for Dummies. authors Lisa McDonald, Jill Rheinheimer. Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor Hybrid livestream HERE. livestream and TAPE may be HERE

Mar 20 Mon 1-2:30 Plant Hunting and Plant Transfers - Victorian Excesses. Toby Musgrave. The Gardens Trust £5 HERE

Mar 20 Mon 6:30 A Culinary History of Montgomery County, Maryland. authors Claudia Kousoulas, Ellen Letourneau. Kensington Park Library. HERE

Mar 21 Tue 6-7:30AM Garden Technology: From Scythes to Cyber – 190 Years of the Mower. Keith Wootton. The Gardens Trust £5 HERE

Mar 21 Tue 6:30-8 Fishtown, USA: The Rise of Fall of New York's Wholesale Fish Market. “From the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s… largest fish and seafood center in the US” Jonathan H. Rees author The Fulton Fish Market: A History. The Gotham Center for New York City History HERE

Mar 22 Wed 1 The Global Impact of Bees and Beekeepers. “ways in which honey bees, and the beekeepers that manage them, influence our world.” Mary Bammer. Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) [wildlife hospital in Lee County, FL] HERE

Mar 22 Wed 3 Bucket mill seeks twin! Conserving Finzean's Historic Water Mills. Sian Loftus. Aberdeen City Heritage Trust. £10 HERE

Mar 22 Wed 7 Maple, New Hampshire's Medicine of Connection. Damian Costello. Chocorua Lake Conservancy HERE or HERE

Mar 22 Wed 8:30 Ladies Sling the Booze. “golden age giants like Ada Coleman (head bartender at the Savoy in London), to wartime Bessie the Bartenders, to modern…” Tammy’s Tastings $19 HERE

Mar 23 Thu 2:30 Eating Italian: the mystery of simplicity. Olga Cuckovic. City of Westminster Libraries & Archives UK HERE

Mar 23 Thu 3 The Impact of European Colonialism on Global Plant Redistribution. Bernd Lenzner. Linnean Society of London HERE

Mar 23 Thu 5 The Politics of Food, Then and Now. Chloe Sorvino, author of Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat. Alex Prud’homme, author of Dinner With The President: Food, Politics and the History of Breaking Bread at the White House. Marion Nestle, author of Slow Cooked, An Unexpected Life in Food Politics. Tanya Holland California Soul. NYU Libraries HERE

Mar 23 Thu 6:30 A Taste of Old Colony History: Soda Bread. Old Colony History Museum HERE

Mar 23 Thu 8pm Cooking Alla Guidia. “how the Jews changed Italian food” Benedetta Jasmine Guetta. Gordon Jewish Community Center HERE

Mar 24 Fri 9AM London in Five Dishes. Historical Discussion Group. “some iconic dishes and drinks that originated in this city” Shoe Lane Library HERE

Mar 24 Fri 12 How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and inequality in America. Priya Fielding-Singh. Boston University Gastronomy Program. HERE

Mar 24 Fri 4 The Flavors of Italy: A Celebration of Food and Culture. Dr. Joseph Luzzi. Context Travel $26.50 with tape 30days HERE

Mar 25 Sat 10:15AM-12 The 1830 Beer House Act. “Act and its effect on Hertfordshire pubs.” Jon Mein. Hertfordshire Family History Society UK HERE

CALENDAR OF VIRTUAL FOOD HISTORY TALKS HERE

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