Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of Brassica oleracea, is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage (B. oleracea var. oleracea), and belongs to the "cole crops" or brassicas, meaning it is closely related to broccoli and cauliflower (var. botrytis); Brussels sprouts (var. gemmifera); and Savoy cabbage (var. sabauda).
A cabbage generally weighs between . Smooth-leafed, firm-headed green cabbages are the most common, with smooth-leafed purple cabbages and crinkle-leafed savoy cabbages of both colours being rarer. Under conditions of long sunny days, such as those found at high northern latitudes in summer, cabbages can grow quite large. , the heaviest cabbage was . Cabbage heads are generally picked during the first year of the plant's life cycle, but plants intended for seed are allowed to grow a second year and must be kept separate from other cole crops to prevent cross-pollination. Cabbage is prone to several nutrient deficiencies, as well as to multiple pests, and bacterial and fungal diseases.
Cabbage was most likely domesticated somewhere in Europe in ancient history before 1000 BC. Cabbage use in cuisine has been documented since antiquity.A brief historical sketch is in Toussaint-Samat, pp. 622ff. It was described as a table luxury in the Roman Empire.The Natural History of Pompeii. Cambridge University Press. 2002. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-521-80054-9 By the Middle Ages, cabbage had become a prominent part of European cuisine, as indicated by manuscript illuminations.Ingram, Christine (2000). The Cook's Guide to Vegetables. Hermes House. pp. 64–66. ISBN 978-1-84038-842-8. New variants were introduced from the Renaissance on, mostly by Germanic-speaking peoples. Savoy cabbage was developed in the 16th century. By the 17th and 18th centuries, cabbage was popularised as a staple food in central, northern, and Eastern Europe.Tannahill, pp. 289–291 It was also employed by European sailors to prevent scurvy during long sea voyages. Starting in the early modern era, cabbage was exported to the Americas, Asia, and around the world.
Cabbages can be prepared many different ways for eating; they can be pickled, fermented (for dishes such as sauerkraut and kimchi), steamed, stewed, roasted, sautéed, braised, or eaten raw. Raw cabbage is a rich source of vitamin K, vitamin C, and dietary fiber. China is the largest producer of cabbages, providing 48% of the world total.
Description
Cabbage seedlings have a thin taproot and cordate, or heart-shaped cotyledons. The first leaves produced are ovate (egg-shaped) with a lobed petiole. Plants are tall in their first year at the mature vegetative stage, and tall when flowering in the second year.Dixon, p. 19 Heads average between , with fast-growing, earlier-maturing varieties producing smaller heads. Most cabbages have thick, alternating leaves, with margins that range from wavy or lobed to highly dissected; some varieties have a waxy bloom on the leaves. Plants have root systems that are fibrous and shallow. About 90% of the root mass is in the upper of soil; some lateral roots can penetrate up to deep.
The inflorescence is an unbranched and indeterminate terminal raceme measuring tall, with flowers that are yellow or white. Each flower has four petals set in a perpendicular pattern, as well as four sepals, six stamens, and a superior ovary that is two-celled and contains a single stigma and style. Two of the six stamens have shorter filaments. The fruit is a silique that opens at maturity through dehiscence to reveal brown or black seeds that are small and round in shape. Self-pollination is impossible, and plants are cross-pollinated by insects. The initial leaves form a rosette shape comprising 7 to 15 leaves, each measuring by ; after this, leaves with shorter petioles develop and heads form through the leaves cupping inward.
Many shapes, colors and leaf textures are found in various cultivated varieties of cabbage. Leaf types are generally divided between crinkled-leaf, loose-head savoys and smooth-leaf firm-head cabbages, while the color spectrum includes white and a range of greens and purples. Oblate, round and pointed shapes are found.Katz and Weaver, p. 280
Cabbage has been selectively bred for head weight and morphological characteristics, frost hardiness, fast growth and storage ability. The appearance of the cabbage head has been given importance in selective breeding, with varieties being chosen for shape, color, firmness and other physical characteristics.Ordas and Cartea, p. 128 Breeding objectives are now focused on increasing resistance to various insects and diseases and improving the nutritional content of cabbage.Ordas and Cartea, p. 135 Scientific research into the genetic modification of B. oleracea crops, including cabbage, has included European Union and United States explorations of greater insect and herbicide resistance.
There are several Guinness Book of World Records entries related to cabbage, including the heaviest cabbage, at ; the heaviest red cabbage, at ; the longest cabbage roll, at ; and the largest cabbage dish, at .
Taxonomy
Cabbage (Brassica oleracea or B. oleracea var. capitata, var. tuba, var. sabauda or var. acephala) is a member of the genus Brassica and the mustard family Brassicaceae. Several other cruciferous vegetables (sometimes known as cole crops) are cultivars of B. oleracea, including broccoli, collard greens, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and sprouting broccoli. All of these developed from the wild cabbage B. oleracea var. oleracea, also called colewort or field cabbage. This original species evolved over thousands of years into those seen today, as selection resulted in cultivars having different characteristics, such as large heads for cabbage, large leaves for kale and thick stems with flower buds for broccoli.
"Cabbage" was originally used to refer to multiple forms of B. oleracea, including those with loose or non-existent heads. A related species, Brassica rapa, is commonly named Chinese, napa or celery cabbage, and has many of the same uses. It is also a part of common names for several unrelated species. These include cabbage bark or cabbage tree (a member of the genus Andira) and cabbage palms, which include several genera of palms such as Mauritia, Roystonea oleracea, Acrocomia and Euterpe oenocarpus.
Etymology The original family name of brassicas was Cruciferae, which derived from the flower petal pattern thought by medieval Europeans to resemble a crucifix.Katz and Weaver, p. 279 The word brassica derives from bresic, a Celtic word for cabbage. The varietal epithet capitata is derived from the Latin word for 'having a head'.
Many European and Asiatic names for cabbage are derived from the Celto-Slavic root cap or kap, meaning "head". The late Middle English word cabbage derives from the word caboche ("head"), from the Picard dialect of Old French. This in turn is a variant of the Old French caboce.
Cultivation
History Although cabbage has an extensive history, it is difficult to trace its exact origins owing to the many varieties of leafy greens classified as "brassicas". A possible wild ancestor of cabbage, Brassica oleracea, originally found in Britain and continental Europe, is tolerant of salt but not encroachment by other plants and consequently inhabits rocky cliffs in cool damp coastal habitats,Dixon, p. 2 retaining water and nutrients in its slightly thickened, turgid leaves. However, genetic analysis is consistent with feral origin of this population, deriving from plants escaped from field and gardens. According to the triangle of U theory of the evolution and relationships between Brassica species, B. oleracea and other closely related kale vegetables (cabbages, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower) represent one of three ancestral lines from which all other brassicas originated.
Cabbage was probably domesticated later in history than Near Eastern crops such as lentils and summer wheat. Because of the wide range of crops developed from the wild B. oleracea, multiple broadly contemporaneous domestications of cabbage may have occurred throughout Europe. Nonheading cabbages and kale were probably the first to be domesticated, before 1000 BC,Katz and Weaver, p. 284 perhaps by the Celts of central and western Europe, although recent linguistic and genetic evidence enforces a Mediterranean origin of cultivated brassicas.
While unidentified brassicas were part of the highly conservative unchanging Mesopotamian garden repertory,"Cabbage plants" are mentioned in Oppenheim, A. Leo (1977) Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 313. it is believed that the ancient Egyptians did not cultivate cabbage, which is not native to the Nile valley, though the word shaw't in Papyrus Harris of the time of Ramesses III has been interpreted as "cabbage".Janick, p. 51 The ancient Greeks had some varieties of cabbage, as mentioned by Theophrastus, although whether they were more closely related to today's cabbage or to one of the other Brassica crops is unknown. The headed cabbage variety was known to the Greeks as krambe and to the Romans as brassica or olus; the open, leafy variety (kale) was known in Greek as raphanos and in Latin as caulis. Ptolemaic Egyptians knew the cole crops as gramb, under the influence of Greek krambe, which had been a familiar plant to the Macedonian antecedents of the Ptolemies. By early Roman times, Egyptian artisans and children were eating cabbage and turnips among a wide variety of other vegetables and pulses.Selected Papyri I, 186, noted in Alan K. Bowman, Egypt After the Pharaohs, p 151.
Chrysippus of Cnidos wrote a treatise on cabbage, which Pliny knew,Pliny's Natural History, 20. 78–83. but it has not survived. The Greeks were convinced that cabbages and grapevines were inimical, and that cabbage planted too near the vine would impart its unwelcome odor to the grapes; this Mediterranean sense of antipathy survives today.Toussaint-Samat, p. 622.
Brassica was considered by some Romans a table luxury, although Lucullus considered it unfit for the senatorial table.Toussaint-Samat, p. 623. The more traditionalist Cato the Elder, espousing a simple Republican life, ate his cabbage cooked or raw and dressed with vinegar; he said it surpassed all other vegetables, and approvingly distinguished three varieties; he also gave directions for its medicinal use, which extended to the cabbage-eater's urine, in which infants might be rinsed.Cato, De agricultura, CLVI, CLVII; the passages are paraphrased by Pliny the Elder. Pliny the Elder listed seven varieties, including Pompeii cabbage, Cumae cabbage and Sabellian cabbage.
According to Pliny, the Pompeii cabbage, which could not stand cold, is "taller, and has a thick stock near the root, but grows thicker between the leaves, these being scantier and narrower, but their tenderness is a valuable quality". The Pompeii cabbage was also mentioned by Columella in De Re Rustica. Apicius gives several recipes for cauliculi, tender cabbage shoots. The Greeks and Romans claimed medicinal usages for their cabbage varieties that included relief from gout, headaches and the symptoms of poisonous mushroom ingestion.
The antipathy towards the vine made it seem that eating cabbage would enable one to avoid drunkenness. Cabbage continued to figure in the materia medica of antiquity as well as at table: in the first century AD Dioscorides mentions two kinds of coleworts with medical uses, the cultivated and the wild, and his opinions continued to be paraphrased in herbals right through the 17th century.