German Red Cabbage with Apples

When I cook my Grandma’s red cabbage recipe, it always brings memories flooding back of times long forgotten. We didn’t eat it a lot – it wasn’t a favorite, in all honesty. As an adult, however, it is one of my go-to recipes when comfort food calls.

It is also a recipe that reminds me just how simple good food is to make at home. Braised red cabbage is a quintessential side dish in Germany. Those of us German-Americans grew up eating it, too, and it is still a staple on many dinner tables.

Depending on where your German ancestors hailed from, you may know it as blaukraut (blue cabbage), rotkraut, or rotkohl (red cabbage). I just call it red cabbage – braised is the only way I fix it, so it is what it is in my house!

The German side of my family (which is most of my sides!), were early settlers in southwest Illinois. As generations come and go, recipes and traditions morph, get lost, and have a resurgence. That has certainly been the case with my family. I have rediscovered recipes, recreated family recipes to be more authentic, and have found a new love for my German heritage in doing so.

Rotkraut mit Speckäpfeln

One of my older German cookbooks (1980) has a recipe in it for Rotkraut mit Speckäpfeln – red cabbage with bacon and apple. It calls for lard, red wine, sugar, cloves, vinegar, onions, bacon, cooked ham, and apples. Instead of cooking all of this together, the apples are stuffed with a mixture of onion, bacon, and ham then placed on top of the cooked cabbage and baked in an oven.

While these are the same ingredients in most recipes I see, the preparation is much different.

1919 Red Cabbage Recipe

In the January 20, 1919 issue of Rock Island (Illinois) Argus, the Household Hints column gives us a recipe for “Delicious Red Cabbage”.

This recipe uses red cabbage, apples, onion, flour, fat, water, salt, pepper, vinegar, and sugar. The flour would serve as a thickening agent for the liquid that leaches out during the braising process. I don’t think this is really necessary as the pectin in the apples would basically accomplish the same thing without adding starch to the recipe. Again, we see the same basic ingredients – minus the red wine and cloves.

There weren’t a lot of red cabbage recipes printed in newspapers at this time. There was a large spike, however, in the 1930s and early 1940s likely due to the Great Depression and WWII rations – cabbage was inexpensive and could feed large families.

Even though it is ideal for hard times, braised red cabbage shouldn’t be ignored as a sweetly pungent side dish any time of the year. Cabbage is full of “good for you” stuff like vitamins C and K, along with dietary fiber and anti-inflammatory agents. And it’s so darn tasty! Well … I think so!

German Red Cabbage

Recipe by Niki Davis

Course: SideCuisine: German

Servings

8

-10 servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

0

minutes

Calories

kcal

A simple German dish that pairs well with schnitzel, frikadellen, and bratwurst. 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter or bacon fat

• 1 small sweet onion thinly sliced

• 1 apple thinly sliced

• 1 head red cabbage cored and shredded

• 1/3 cup cider vinegar

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup red wine

• 1/4 cup water

•  

•  

Directions

• Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions to the butter and cook until they are slightly translucent. Add the apples and continue cooking until the apples are tender, stirring to prevent sticking. Add the cabbage, wine, water, sugar, and vinegar and stir together. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pot. Let the cabbage cook for at least one hour to become tender.  

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @RootedInFoods on Instagram and hashtag it with

Like this recipe?

Follow @RootedinFoods on Pinterest

Connect with Us!

Follow us on Facebook