Cabbage A-La-Creme – The Virginia House-Wife, pg 105 / Mary Randolph

Take two good heads of cabbage, cut out the stalks, boil it tender with a little salt in the water, have ready one large spoonful of butter and a small one of flour rubbed into it, half a pint of milk, with pepper and salt, make it hot, put the cabbage in after pressing out the water, and stew it till quite tender.

Leni says -The milk MR calls for would have been much more like our modern half and half.  Randolph’s book has four recipes for cabbage.  It was a vegetable that could be harvested and stored for winter use and from the records of the Jefferson family food purchases must have been a favorite at the table at Monticello.  The whole head stored well and could be counted on to be unspoiled in the middle of the winter.  Today cabbage will last for many weeks in the fridge.

Cabbage is so easy to grow that it continued to be a garden favorite.  Seedlings are for sale in the earliest spring and again come fall.  Cabbages come in many shapes; round headed, cone headed, and deeply crinkled Savoy varieties.  Even Nappa Cabbage (actually a form of Chinese cabbage) can be prepared as are other cabbages, A La Creme, or as sauerkraut, or stuffed as rolls in a rich tomato sauce.  Yum!