Cabbage

Green Cabbage

Dear friends and family.

Højdedraget, Saturday, 31 October 2020 

November is at the door and it's cabbage time. An important time in my homeland. This story is about cabbage, but first you have to know a little about Vendsyssel, where I come from.

Many people perceive Vendsyssel as part of Jutland, but it is in fact our northernmost island, separated from Jutland by a narrow strait, which we call the Limfjord.

Vendsyssel also differs in other ways from the rest of the country. The peasants there, never became serfs. It may be due to their contentious minds, but the country was also barren and not worth fighting for - except for us who lived there.

As an island surrounded by water, we had easy access to fish and not least to salt. The vital salt we could obtain from the sea, It made us independent of manors, as we see it to the south. In Germany, owners of salt mines set themselves up as princes and banned all trade in salt from outside. Salt is a necessity of life and the means of controlling an entire population. No wonder Ganhi at the Great Salt March chose to extract salt from a spoonful of seawater to demonstrate independence from British colonial power. Salt was the Englishman means to control the great inland.

Over time, there has been independence among populations in coastal areas, precisely because of the free access to salt - and this has also been the case in Vendsyssel. We have always felt more free and more independent.

Besides salt, there was another necessity of life that came to mean a great deal in my homeland and that is cabbage. Barren as the country was, not everyone could afford a cow, but everyone had a cabbage garden. The cabbage thrives well and best in the strong wind that swept in over the country from the west. Owners of a cow could survive winter and especially spring before next harvest. Thanks to the milk's content of vitamin C, the women did not bleed to death in the maternity bed in the spring. That trick could also be green cabbage. The cabbage gardens made it possible to survive in the interior of Vendsyssel, even if one could not afford a cow.

With this knowledge, you may be able to understand the zeal and joy my mother was seized by when Agnethe first asked her for advice on cooking kale – an important question indeed. "Yes, you see. When you have just slaughtered a calf, you must save the soup to cook the cabbage in ..." At that point, Agnethe gave up. We lived then in two small rented rooms with no calf or anywhere to slaughter it.

Home, once we had the first frost, the green cabbage was harvested. We had a large peat-fired grue kettle. When water was brought to a boil, it was filled with whole kale and as the cabbage collapsed, more cabbage was topped up. The cabbage should be cooked quite tender. Then we ribbed it by hand. Cabbage sticks went to the pigs and leaves were crushed as is into balls by hand. All of these kale balls were laid on a clean scrubbed board directly on the basement floor. They could stay there all of January until they were eaten up. At home we got cabbage as an evening meal and for the first time the night before Christmas Eve - and then otherwise as long as we had cabbage in the cellar.

Løjer og grønlangkål -i Vendsyssel 1966

Julen er ikke bare gås eller and. Der er meget andet, der feder. Endnu har flere af de danske landsdele deres specialiteter. I store dele af Vendsyssel spiser man lillejuleaften og 1. juledag grønlangkål, der er tilberedt på en ganske særlig måde.

Fru Elga Koch, der driver pensionať Dronninglund 30 km nord øst for Aalborg fortæller: -Man køber fersk, stribet flæsk og et par meter medisterpølse hvis man ikke er ret mange til bords. Begge dele koger man, hvorefter man lægger det til side. Forinden har man skyllet masser af grønkål, som man ribber og kommer i suppen fra flæsket og pølsen.

Hvor meget grønkål? - Mange steder bruger man så meget, at man må skylle kålen i badekarret. Og hvis man er flere til middag, plejer man at koge i en gruekedel.

- Og så koger man grønkålen? -Ja, indtil den er mør. Når den er så mege afkølet at man kan røre ved den, tager man den op og kryster den. - Kryster?

Ja, man klemmer suppen ud og former kålen i faste kugler på størrelse med tennisbolde. Og så lægger man den i køleskabet. Når man skal bruge den, tager man den ud af køleskabet, skærer den i skiver og rister den på panden i svinefedt og lidt fløde. Der skal salt på.

- Nogle bruger også lidt eddike og sukker?

- Ikke jeg. [På Søndersigen bruger man ikke eddike, men gerne lidt sukker, hvis kålen ikke havde fået frost inden høst. Vi kogte kålen med stok og ribbede til sidst. Stokkkene skulle grisene jo have. Derfor koges de med.] Men så spiser man kålen varm og kødet koldt. Der skal rødbeder og sennep til. - Og ikke andet?

- Jo, øl og snaps, selvfølgelig - f. eks. porsesnaps. Heroppe, laver mange selv bjedsken af porsen, de plukker om sommeren.

Lodvi'

The end of it was, that my mom sent us boiled kale. When she could no longer do kthis, my big sister Pet took over. Since big sister could not send us either, we found a place up there we could buy it.

Today I have to sent my order for kale and that is probably why I wanted to tell you about it. The order goes to a butcher on Emilievej in Frederikshavn. He boils, ribs and freezes the kale like balls. They are sent at night together with ice so they are on my stepping stone the next morning.

Now you would think everything is fine. But no - the cabbage needs to be heated. That's easy enough. Grease on a pan and then turn up the heat. My mom also told Nethe that she should save duck fat for the frying pan. In my home we had lots of duck fat at that time of year. I know Nethe tried several things and ended up using butter and a little cream to gather the cabbage - In the old days we could do this with duck fat alone.

I have heated kale for dinner countless times and know exactly what they should look and taste like. I have practiced now again, but it is difficult to get it right. The cabbage I buy is probably harvested before it has taken frost, so it lacks the natural sweetness that the cold produces in the leaves. Now I try with a bit of sugar to compensate for this. The duck fat also brought flavor and I try if a little salt and maybe a little pepper can do the same. I have a few months to practice before friends and family gather here in the house on December 22 for our traditional Christmas table - and Vendsyssel kale is the most important of it all - served hot with boiled pork and Snaps, custard and rye bread.

En kugle fra Frederikshavn vejer 200-240 g per styk.

Grønlangkål serveres med kogt flæsk til. Man kan bruge stegesiden af brystflæsk, men fortrinsvis bruges kogesiden. Flæskes lægget i saltvand et til to døgn efter hvor saltet, det ønskes. Opløs 120 gram salt per liter vand. Flæskes koges mørt som regel halvanden time. Lad flæsket køle af i kogevandet. 

Ofte servers også medisterpølse til. Medisteren kan koge med et kvarterstid og steges færdig på pande ved fem minutter på hver side.

En grønkålskugle på ca. 200 g varmes i 10 g smør og tilsættes 3 spiseskefulde (3x15 ml) piskefløde. (Brug ikke mere fløde end kålen kan optage. Kommer der for meget i, kan der rettes for der med et lille drys hvedemel) Smages til med salt (1 teskefuld 5 ml) og sukker (1-2 teskefulde 5-10 ml) (Ikke for meget, kålen må ikke blive sød. Kål skal helst have fået frost inden de høstes og udviklet naturlig sødme, men det sker ikke i dag. Derfor lidt sukker). Ovre østpå tilsættes også eddike, op til 15 ml og peber, men det gør vi ikke på Søndersigen.

The most loving greetings from Lars Olav

---

 Red Cabbage

Wash the cabbage head. Loosen the outer leaves to check the next layer. All leaves are used, even the outermost ones if they are fine. Cut the heads into quarters from top to bottom. Remove most of the white stem at the bottom. Cut them with a food processor. Melt butter and fry the sliced cabbage until tender. Finally, season with a little sugar and salt. It withstands freezing and actually tastes best reheated in a bit more butter. Do not add water, currant juice or anything. 

1 red cabbage approx. 2 kg 

50 g butter 

30 ml sugar 

5 ml of salt

Heat for 2½-3½ hours in a large saucepan (eg 12 liters) without lid over low heat (position 4 out of 9 steps) while stirring occasionally so that it does not burn. Finally add sugar and salt. On reheating can be flavored with a little more sugar, but not more than 50 ml in total. During frying, the red cabbage collapses and the weight is reduced by 25%.

I should have used my larger 16 liter saucepan for this 3 kg cabbage.

Two kg cabbage, shrinks during frying.

The recipe comes from my mother Petra, who has it from my grandmother Kristine born at Aasholm and who in turn has it from my great-grandmother Christine Marie at Korsholt.

Korsholt i dag.

Vester Aashom 1930

Søndersiggaard 1950

Brunkål ad modum Frk. Jensen

4 portioner

1 lille hvidkål (ca. 1 kg), 4 spsk sukker, 50 g smør/margarine, salt, (1 dl vand), (1-2 løg). 

Der koges 400 g letsaltet stegeflæsk sammen med kålen. Saltlage: 1 liter vand koges op med 160 g salt og 2 spsk farin. Flæsket lægges i den afkølede lage natten over. Flæsket må gerne være skiveskåret, men helst ikke.

Note til ingredienser: 2 spsk sukker per kg kål er nok. Det kommer salt nok fra det saltede flæsk. Vandet bør tilsættes sammen med kålen. Løg kan undværes.

Hvidkålen snittes fint. Sukkeret hældes i en opvarmet stegegryde og smeltes ved lille blus uden omrøring. Når det skummer og er lysebrunt, tilsættes fedtstoffet. Lad det bruse op og kom kålen i lidt efter lidt. Brun den ved god varme, mens der vendes i den. Når den er brunet, (tilsættes eventuelt salt) og kålen dampes mør under låg ved svag varme ca. ¾ time (gerne længere). Der må af og til røres i den, og der må evt. tilsættes lidt mere vand; den må ikke koge tør. 1-2 snittede løg kan brunes med.

Et stykke letsaltet stribet stegeflæsk lægges ned i kålen, når den er brunet, og dampes mør heri. Flæsket må gerne være skiveskåret - den stegeflæsk, vi får i supermarkeder, er normalt skiveskåret. Skivetskåret flæsk bindes sammen med en snor og tages op i tide, så det ikke koger ud og går i et med kålen.