How-To: Blanch Cabbage for Freezing

The finished product.

Today's recipe isn't so much a recipe as a technique. Fannie Farmer has plenty of these. Keep in mind this cookbook was originally published in 1896, so it has lots of old-school techniques for preserving things as well as using every possible part of an animal (including brains).

Anyway, on to the technique at hand.

The inside of the head.

First, chop cabbage into whatever size you want. I usually use squares about 1-1 1/2 inches for use in soups and other dishes, so that's what size I used for blanching.
Meanwhile, bring a kettle of water to a boil. You need to have enough to submerge the cabbage.I keep mine in a steamer basket so I can dunk it in the boiling water, lift it out, and bring it to the ice water all in the same basket, but you could also use a cheese cloth or a colander. 

Once the water is at a rapid boil, dunk the cabbage for 90 seconds.
While that is happening, prepare a large bowl of ice water (I put a tray of ice cubes into a large bowl of cold water).
Remove the cabbage from the boiling water and dunk in ice water for 90 seconds.

Take it out and pat it with a towel to remove some water or let it drain a few minutes while you stuff it in bags for freezing. I try to pack mine pretty tightly into sandwich sized bags with ziplocks. Also, my sister gave me a tip to put a straw into an unzipped corner and suck the air out to give it a sort of vacuum seal. That way it will be packed tighter, with less room for freezer burn.




Once packed in bags, put it in a freezer for later use.