The Most Underrated Thanksgiving Vegetable

"It is a cliché of food writing to refer to a vegetable as "humble"-the humble carrot, the humble potato-but in the case of cabbage, the cliché is apt. Mark Twain wrote that "cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." Lewis Carroll's walrus and carpenter discuss topics so unalike from one another that they talk of "cabbages-and kings." Cabbage, a staple of peasant cuisine across Eurasia, is not merely humble, but the very symbol of humility."

"Two thousand years before Twain considered the subject, however, Cato the Elder offered a different view. " Brassica est quae omnibus holeribus antistat," he wrote: "The cabbage surpasses all other vegetables." Setting aside the specifics of his argument, which to modern ears will sound oddly focused on the urine of cabbage-eaters, the overall sentiment is spot on. By weight, cabbage is among the cheapest foods you can buy."

"(For simplicity's sake, I'm focusing exclusively on standard-issue green cabbage, and not other wonderful varieties such as savoy and napa.) A USDA database ranked 93 different vegetable categories by price as of 2022. Green cabbage came in at No. 93. Because it is so dense, a single head produces an astonishing amount of food. It lasts in the refrigerator almost indefinitely, long past the point when kale begins to stink and carrots go soggy and limp."

Cabbage offers exceptional affordability, longevity, and culinary flexibility. Historical voices praised cabbage, including Cato the Elder's Latin maxim 'Brassica est quae omnibus holeribus antistat,' Mark Twain's quip that 'cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education,' and Lewis Carroll's 'cabbages-and kings' image. Standard green cabbage ranked lowest-priced among 93 vegetable categories in a 2022 USDA database, and its density yields a large amount of food per head. Cabbage stores for long periods in refrigeration, resists overcooking, and adapts to roasting, grilling, pan-searing, and raw preparations like coleslaw, offering substantial value during winter.

Read at The Atlantic