When I was a kid on all of our holiday tables I remember vividly my mom would make sure that my dad had a jar of pickled herring, one with sour cream and one just plain. He usually gets at least one jar of my “pickled” creations since he loves to snack on them. He told me about a month ago that he opened my Dilly Beans and ate almost the whole jar. I have been thinking about my dad and I decided to put together a Spiced Red Cabbage which essentially is pickled.
I found the basis for the recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving but the recipe was for way more than I wanted to make. Using my previous knowledge of making sure that I keep the acidity levels correct for a smaller batch I did the calculation and created a 4 1/2 pint version that with one large head of cabbage was perfect. The recipe also had a spice that I don’t use which is mace and I omitted it in the final version. This recipe takes two days to do but its great for those of you who don’t have a whole lot of time after work to do an entire recipe in one night.
As you will see the water bath didn’t take away from the beautiful purple color that red cabbage is noted for. The recipe was simple like a raw packed dilly bean, adding the brine afterward to fill the jar to the noted headspace.

Spiced Red Cabbage
Ingredients
- 1 PC. Large head Red Cabbage
- 1/8 cup Kosher salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/8 cup mustard seeds
- 4 cups white vinegar
- 1 T. whole cloves
- 1 T. whole allspice
- 1 T. peppercorns
- 1 T. celery seed
- 1 PC. stick cinnamon - broken in half
Instructions
- Cut cabbage in half, remove the core and then shred the red cabbage using a knife or mandolin.
- Layer the cabbage in a bowl covering each layer with a bit of the salt.
- Let stand 24 hours covered.
- Rinse the cabbage and then drain the cabbage to get most of the water out on a paper towel or colander. This might take a few hours.
- Prepare 4 pints and one 1/2 pint jars by sterilizing them and then raw pack each jar with the now as dry as possible red cabbage.
- Pack them leaving 1 inch headspace. Prepare your lids and rings.
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