Red cabbage
Brassica oleracea · Brassica
Top 10 pairings
Red cabbage — also called purple cabbage, red kraut, or in German Rotkohl — is the deep purple-red headed cabbage, a tight, heavy ball of smooth leaves saturated with anthocyanin pigment and laced with pale white-purple veins. Next to common green cabbage it is firmer and crunchier, a touch more peppery and a little less sweet, and its colour is famously pH-sensitive: it holds a vivid red when cooked with something acidic and shifts blue or purple-grey without, which is why braised red cabbage is almost always cooked with vinegar, apple, or wine.
Picking a good onedrag
Field freshLong stored
SolidBuy itThe standard trimmed head: dense and heavy. Braise, roast, ferment or eat raw.
ColourEven pale green, tight and smooth
HeftFirm and dense, no give
StemCream, dry, clean-cut
SqueakSqueaks
SmellNothing at all
These cues are Cabbage's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
80%
Edible part
908 g · outer leaves, core out
1135 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 12× longer than the counter.
98–100%
Humidity
Ventilated
Airflow