Cabbage is unfairly maligned. It doesn't have to taste like stewed socks and it delivers a vitamin C punch we need for health in the winter months. Try this French recipe for a one-dish duck-and-cabbage meal.
The pointy cabbage is an heirloom variety called Carafax in the U.S., and is becoming popular in farmers markets in the Northeast. I have been told by a Facebook friend who is a South Carolina food historian, that its U.S. origins are in the South, although documentation that seeds arrived along with early settlers from the UK is probably murky. I don't know enough to speculate. I do know that it is sweeter and more tender than standard commodity cabbage, and is what I buy when I see one. I have one in my refrigerator as I write this. The last time I cooked cabbage, I followed Gabrielle Hamilton's method which involves braising with anchovies and garlic. My husband was away for a few days, so I was free to cook things I know he wouldn't like. He wouldn't have liked it, but I did, very much. And I had enough to eat for several days!
The curious thing about this variety of cabbage is how nothing is known about its origins. I beat my head against a brick wall trying to dig into its history. Last decade no-one had heard of it, this decade it's everywhere. All members of the wide cabbage family appear originally to have been cultivated in Northern Europe and Britain. Hispi is the sweetest of them, which may account for one of its informal names, the Sweetheart cabbage, and not its shape. All I can tell you for sure is that its botanical name is Brassica oleracea capitata 'Hispi' and that I will definitely be trying your/Gabrielle Hamilton's seductive recipe.
The pointy cabbage is an heirloom variety called Carafax in the U.S., and is becoming popular in farmers markets in the Northeast. I have been told by a Facebook friend who is a South Carolina food historian, that its U.S. origins are in the South, although documentation that seeds arrived along with early settlers from the UK is probably murky. I don't know enough to speculate. I do know that it is sweeter and more tender than standard commodity cabbage, and is what I buy when I see one. I have one in my refrigerator as I write this. The last time I cooked cabbage, I followed Gabrielle Hamilton's method which involves braising with anchovies and garlic. My husband was away for a few days, so I was free to cook things I know he wouldn't like. He wouldn't have liked it, but I did, very much. And I had enough to eat for several days!
The curious thing about this variety of cabbage is how nothing is known about its origins. I beat my head against a brick wall trying to dig into its history. Last decade no-one had heard of it, this decade it's everywhere. All members of the wide cabbage family appear originally to have been cultivated in Northern Europe and Britain. Hispi is the sweetest of them, which may account for one of its informal names, the Sweetheart cabbage, and not its shape. All I can tell you for sure is that its botanical name is Brassica oleracea capitata 'Hispi' and that I will definitely be trying your/Gabrielle Hamilton's seductive recipe.
Tabled reader Harvey offers the following to inspire more people to take cabbage seriously:
"Your cabbage column brought to mind two very different memories.
1. Chef Chris Kajioka’s magnificent grilled cabbage, a mainstay of his superb Honolulu restaurant Senia, lovingly described in this story:
https://medium.com/@TheCulinaryMind/anatomy-of-a-plate-with-chef-chris-kajioka-1eb2bb7aebb4
2. My Jewish mother’s stuffed cabbage, a regular midweek meal as I grew up, the recipe well documented by Joan Nathan.
https://food52.com/recipes/23756-joan-nathan-s-chosen-stuffed-cabbage"