ISO recipe for canning pickled red cabbage

[taxlady]

I found a recipe for pickled red cabbage on the Bernardin.ca website. It's for water bath canning, Pickled Spiced Red Cabbage. This recipe requires that I salt and drain the shredded cabbage. I'm hoping for a recipe that doesn't require that. I don't mind if the recipe requires me to cook the cabbage for more than 5 minutes before putting it in the jars, like this recipe does.

Am I correct in assuming that I can change or leave out the spices, as long as I leave the rest of the recipe as is? I will be leaving the amounts of sugar, salt, and vinegar as written in the recipe.

 

[blissful]

I didn't find it under nchfp, but under extension (university extension) service.

Canning German Red Cabbage #308808 - Ask Extension

I have a recipe I dearly love for sweet & sour Red Cabbage and want to know if I can use the water bath method or should I use my pressure cooker ...

ask2.extension.org

Spiced Red Cabbage (Source: Ball® Blue Book Guide to Preserving. 2014)


12 pounds cabbage (about 3 large heads)


½ cup Ball ® salt (canning/pickling salt)


1 cup brown sugar


½ cup mustard seed


¼ cup mace


2 quarts red wine vinegar


¼ cup whole cloves


¼ cup whole allspice


¼ cup peppercorns


¼ cup celery seed


2 sticks cinnamon


Ball ® Pickle Crisp (optional)

Yes, you can change, omit, spices (dry spices) if you leave the rest of it the same.

 

[taxlady]

Thank you for looking, blissful. That seems to be the pretty much same recipe, including the part I'm hoping to skip, the salting and draining.

 

[GotGarlic]

Thank you for looking, blissful. That seems to be the pretty much same recipe, including the part I'm hoping to skip, the salting and draining.

If you skip the salting and draining before canning, the water will just come out of the cabbage during or after canning, diluting the acidity. That will make it less safe.

 

[taxlady]

If you skip the salting and draining before canning, the water will just come out of the cabbage during or after canning, diluting the acidity. That will make it less safe.

That's what I figured. That's why I am looking for a safe recipe that doesn't call for that step. It will probably be less like proper Danish rødkål, if I salt and drain it.

 

[GotGarlic]

I don't think you'll find a safe recipe that doesn't call for that step, since it's necessary for safety. The only thing it will do is soften the cabbage, which will happen anyway when you water-bath it. You could try making a small batch of a jar or two and see what you think.

 

[taxlady]

I don't think you'll find a safe recipe that doesn't call for that step, since it's necessary for safety. The only thing it will do is soften the cabbage, which will happen anyway when you water-bath it. You could try making a small batch of a jar or two and see what you think.

Yeah, I was planning to make a small batch to see what I thought. And it's not like I can find the info on a Danish cooking site. They use a preservative called Atamon (probably only available in Scandinavia) comprised of sodium benzoate (E211) and benzoic acid (E210) instead of hot water bath canning. They rinse the jar with the Atamon and often add a bit to the food. Then they consider it shelf stable.

I have concerns about that. I have sent email to my sister asking about this. She was a chemical engineer and her first specialty was foods. In Denmark, she worked at a candy factory in quality assurance and at Carlsberg in research. I'm waiting for an answer.

 

[noignrnc]

As someone of German heritage with extensive canning knowledge, I would like to add some information (that I feel is important for those reading & learning from the comments).
--Even by today's rigid-authority-standards, in waterbath canning a safe 'pickle' is 50% vinegar (5% acidity) and 50% water (or other non-acidic liquid). 100% vinegar (such as this recipe), is extreme-safety-overkill...and the reason the recipe was formulated with 100% vinegar was not likely for safety, but rather because old-world Germans *loved their vinegar*.
--For it to be unsafe to pickle a 100% vinegar recipe, the water/liquid from the cabbage (or any produce) would have to total than 50% of the volume of the vinegar.
--I have made this recipe many times, and the water released from the cabbage (from the salting of the cabbage) is substantially less than 2 quarts...therefore, it would be safe to waterbath can this recipe using unsalted cabbage (or with steamed/blanched/cooked cabbage that has been drained/dried sufficiently to add less than 2 quarts of liquid). BUT doing so (assuming the cabbage has more water/liquid than it would if had it been salted), would dilute the intensity of the vinegar/spice mixture, which would alter the flavor, somewhat, from the original.
--Fwiw, I have also used this brine recipe for spiced pickled beets (using scrubbed, then cooked beets, with or without raw onions added, waterbathed), and it never fails to gain favorable responses. (I use 1/3 white vinegar, 1/3 red wine vinegar, and 1/3 Balsamic vinegar).

 

[Kathleen]

Thanks for posting! Welcome to DC!!!

 

[Aunt Bea]

I don’t have any experience with this recipe or its safety.

It indicates that you can keep the finished product in sterilized jars under refrigeration.

Danish Red Cabbage (Rødkål) - The Best and Traditional Recipe!

This recipe for the traditional Danish Red Cabbage is easy to make and very delicious. You only need five different ingredients and it's good for Christmas.

nordicfoodliving.com

 

[taxlady]

I don’t have any experience with this recipe or its safety.

It indicates that you can keep the finished product in sterilized jars under refrigeration.

Danish Red Cabbage (Rødkål) - The Best and Traditional Recipe!

This recipe for the traditional Danish Red Cabbage is easy to make and very delicious. You only need five different ingredients and it's good for Christmas.

nordicfoodliving.com

That's pretty close to the recipe I use. I use red currant jelly, not juice. But, this is a Danish cooking site. I don't trust Danish recipes to be shelf stable, even when they say they are. As far as I can tell, they haven't been tested for safety. Often, when they want something to be shelf stable, they add Atamon, a preservative. There isn't even any Atamon in this recipe. Nope, I'm a chicken. I want a tested recipe.

BTW, my sister got back to me about the Atamon. She thinks it's probably good enough, but can't be certain. Oh well.