Call any vegetable
Nov. 5th, 2005 12:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustThere is a red cabbage in my vegetable box this week, and looking for ideas for using it, I naturally turn to Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. Where I found this, among other things:
THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS'S RED CABBAGE
(* Quoted by Theodora Fitzgibbon in her Taste of Paris, Dent 1974.)
Jane Grigson comments:
Four pints may seem a lot of liquid for one medium-sized red cabbage, even if it does bubble away for several hours. But remember that the old wine-measure pint, which is still the American pint, is intended, rather than our 20 fl oz Imperial pint of 1826. Charlotte Elizabeth's pint would therefore have been a fraction under half a litre, about 16 fl oz. The metric system was introduced by Napoleon, over three-quarters of a century later, but the old measurements lingered on years after that.
Copies of this recipe are said to have been handed out after the funeral of the German-born Duchess of Orleans, in 1722, by a nurseryman with a glut of red cabbages to get rid of. A valedictory note, purporting to be by the Duchess, said that this was her favourite recipe for red cabbage.
I don't know which pleases me more, the idea of the Duchess on her deathbed inscribing her favourite cabbage recipes, or the discovering that there are hours of fun to be had googling old weights and measures.
THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS'S RED CABBAGE
'Cook a medium sized, sliced red cabbage in four pints of bouillon with two slices of cooking apple, and an onion stuck with clove, and add two glasses of good red wine. Sprinkle generously with spices and let it simmer for several hours.'*
(* Quoted by Theodora Fitzgibbon in her Taste of Paris, Dent 1974.)
Jane Grigson comments:
Four pints may seem a lot of liquid for one medium-sized red cabbage, even if it does bubble away for several hours. But remember that the old wine-measure pint, which is still the American pint, is intended, rather than our 20 fl oz Imperial pint of 1826. Charlotte Elizabeth's pint would therefore have been a fraction under half a litre, about 16 fl oz. The metric system was introduced by Napoleon, over three-quarters of a century later, but the old measurements lingered on years after that.
Copies of this recipe are said to have been handed out after the funeral of the German-born Duchess of Orleans, in 1722, by a nurseryman with a glut of red cabbages to get rid of. A valedictory note, purporting to be by the Duchess, said that this was her favourite recipe for red cabbage.
I don't know which pleases me more, the idea of the Duchess on her deathbed inscribing her favourite cabbage recipes, or the discovering that there are hours of fun to be had googling old weights and measures.
