Enjoy this Red Cabbage with your traditional German meal. It will make your bratwurst, sauerbraten or a pork roast come alive with German flavor! It’s also great with turkey or chicken! This sweet and tart dish helps cleanse the palate between bites and adds a burst of flavor to your plate. We really like it with out Wurst Platter!
Family Traditions – Ours Include Red Cabbage
Not just a Hank Williams song (that’s pretty funny if you go to the right dueling pianos show…), this is my mother-in-law’s recipe. She and her mother immigrated from war torn Germany in her early teens with barely the clothes on their backs. They did have the knowledge of the German traditions and recipes, and we get to enjoy many traditional German dishes. I’m trying to learn how to cook my favorites to continue her legacy. Unfortunately, a lot of her recipes are just in her head and involve seasoning to taste instead of measurements, so are very hard to replicate. I pulled her into the video at the end to taste and give some advice on finishing the dish. It’s fun to be able to get her take on dishes she has made her whole life. This dish is our family tradition at Thanksgiving with the turkey dinner.
Tips for Success!
A good red cabbage feels solid and will be medium sized. I cut the stem area off, cut it into wedges, then thin slice the wedges. Cut the thin slices into about 1 inch strips, so the whole cabbage in cut into coleslaw type consistency.
Juniper berries are used in pickling. It took some searching to find these, but they do give a unique flavor profile, so worth it! I finally found them in the bulk section of a specialty grocer. Once I found them, I got enough to make this several times. It was under a dollar, so not super expensive, just difficult to find.
Unlike most recipes where you add spices at one point and cook them in, this recipe has two times for flavor. You add measured spices at the beginning to boil with the cabbage and provide the initial flavor. Boil the cabbage until most of the water is gone. Then you have another round of flavoring. This one is mostly by taste instead of measured amounts. It varies each time you make the recipe, so takes some practice to get it exactly where you enjoy it most.
Oma swears a wooden spoon makes a difference… I know you get a purple wooden spoon as a souvenir when you make this dish, and always use one since she told me to and Oma’s always right.
Frequent stirring is important, especially towards the end when you want to make sure there is still a bit of liquid and nothing is sticking to the pan.
Red Cabbage
Course: Recipes, Side DishesCuisine: GermanDifficulty: Medium8
servings20
minutes2
hours30
minutes64
kcal2
hours50
minutesEnjoy this Red Cabbage with your traditional German meal. It will make your bratwurst, sauerbraten or a pork roast come alive with German flavor! It’s also great with turkey or chicken! This sweet and tart dish helps cleanse the palate between bites and adds a burst of flavor to your plate.
Ingredients
1 Head of Red Cabbage sliced thin like coleslaw
1/4 of a Yellow Onion, diced
1 Granny Smith Apple, diced
1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar + more to taste
1 Tbsp Shortening (like Crisco)
5 Cloves
5 Juniper Berries
3 Bay Leaves
1/8 cup Sugar + more to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions
- Add half the chopped cabbage to your pan. Place shortening, apple, onion, sugar and spices on top of cabbage. Add the other half of the cabbage to the pan.
- Add water to pan until about halfway up the cabbage, then add cider vinegar.
- Cook covered over medium heat, stirring frequently and making sure you don’t run out of water in the pan. Cook until cabbage is tender, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
- Remove lid and increase heat to get a nice simmer. If you still have a lot of water in the pan, pour some out so you only have about 1/2 cup left. Add salt (probably 3-4 pinches but to your taste) and a similar amount of black pepper.
- Taste for flavor. You should be able to taste the sour of the vinegar and the sweet from the sugar. Most likely, you’ll need another 1/8 cup of each at this step for the flavors to be present. Flavor to your taste.
- Simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes or until liquid is mostly gone.