Braised Sweet and Sour Cabbage

I am the first to admit that cabbage was never a favorite vegetable of mine. It was always one of those weird vegetables that no one knows how to cook and when it was cooked it smelled funny. A vegetable that is very generational (meaning that grandparents eat it). Anyways, I think I was in college when I discovered that coleslaw was one of the best summer side dishes ever created (of course that has to be made with Hellman's mayonaise). Then eating corned beef and cabbage was good because the cabbage just tasted like the corned beef. Now I have expanded my horizons even more. I got out of the library The Good House Keeping 125th Anniversary Cookbook
and devoured through the pages marking them with tiny Post It Note flags. Well, Braised Sweet and Sour Cabbage was marked with a flag and now it is cooking on the stove.
So, here is the ingredient list.r Red Cabbage

Braised Sweet and Sour Cabbage

3 T olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pear peeled, cored, and chopped
2 medium heads of red cabbage, cut in quarters, cored and thinly sliced
1 can (14oz) beef broth
1 cup apple juice
⅓ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 small bay leaves
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
⅛ teaspoon allspice

1. In non reactive 8 quart sauce pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and pear; cook, stirring frequently, until tender, 10 min.
2. Stir in cabbage, broth, apple juice, vinegar, brown sugar, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and all spice; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is very tender, about 1 hour. Remove cover and cook over medium- high heat, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes longer. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Makes 10 accompaniment servings.

Preparing this wasn't too hard, but I recommend a really good chef's knife to cut the cabbage. And when coring the cabbage use a smaller paring knife to cut out the core. I used the chef's knife again to cut the cabbage into thin slices. The chef's knife is helpful because it is wide enough to cover most of the head of cabbage. Beware though, this does make a lot of cabbage. I'm sure you could probably just trim down the recipe and use one head of cabbage and you wouldn't be stuck with red cabbage until the end of time.

The true test will be tomorrow when I eat it with the Easter Ham. I thought this dish would be a nice accompanying taste for the ham.