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Slow cooking renders cabbage meltingly tender and sweet. Try slowly sautéing a mixture of cabbage and onion over low heat for 10 to 20 minutes. Combine it with freshly cooked egg noodles and sour cream to make a delicious eastern European dish known as haluska.

There are plenty of really terrific “peasant-style” cabbage dishes that should not be ignored, beginning with bubble-and-squeak, which takes its name from the sound cabbage is supposed to make as it cooks: Sauté shredded cabbage in butter, then add leftover mashed potatoes and press down to make a pancake. Brown on both sides. Or braise cabbage in beer with sausages: Brown sausages in a large skillet, add beer, and simmer until the sausage is almost cooked through. Add sliced or shredded cabbage, cover, and continue to simmer until the cabbage is tender crisp and the sausage is fully cooked. Chlopski is a similar dish made with bacon and braised in water, wine, or broth. Caldo gallego (Spanish) and garbure (French) are rib-sticking soups made with white beans, cabbage, and an accent meat, such as bacon, salt pork, or ham, for flavor.

Of course, cabbage does not need to be cooked at all to be delicious. Coleslaw is an all-American standard, and it can be made in dozens of different ways (see pages 50 to 56).

Cabbage Math

1 small head green cabbage = about 2 pounds, trimmed

1 medium head green cabbage = about 3 pounds, trimmed

1 medium head bok choy = about 2 pounds

1 pound cabbage = 4 cups shredded = 2 cups cooked

Collard Greens

I once met a grower who spends half the year in Florida and half the year in Vermont. When in Vermont, he can’t grow enough beet greens to meet demand; in Florida, the beet greens don’t move but the collards fly out of the market. Collard greens just aren’t that well-liked in New England, but they are deliciously popular in the South.

This member of the Cabbage family has flat, round, blue-green leaves on tough, fibrous stems. Collards and kale are genetically quite similar and both are ancient plants, much like the original nonheading cabbage from which all the Cabbage family plants evolved. Like kale, you can harvest the outer stems of the collards (roughly one-quarter of the plant at a time) to keep the plant producing more leaves.

Collards probably came to the New World from Africa via slaves who brought them into plantation kitchens. The tradition of long-simmering collards and drinking the juices from the greens (known as “pot likker”) is of African origin. Traditionally, collards are eaten on New Year’s Day, along with black-eyed peas or field peas and cornbread, to ensure wealth in the coming year, perhaps in reference to the leaves’ resemblance to folded bills.

If you enjoy eating kale, you are likely to enjoy eating collard greens, and the two can be used interchangeably in most recipes. Collard greens do not have to be cooked until they are a soft, Southern-style mess o’ greens if a more tooth-some dish is desired. But I highly recommend trying Southern-style greens (simmered with salt pork, bacon, or a ham bone, and doused with apple cider vinegar) before making any judgments on what you think you like.

Collards, like kale and other greens, cook down to one-quarter to one-eighth of their original volume. A brown-paper grocery bag filled with unpacked leaves is just about the right amount for serving collards to a family of four as a main course.

Availability

Collard greens are available from September through June and are considered best after a few light frosts.

Storage

Where winters are mild, keep the collard greens in the garden. Where winters are harsh, leave them in the garden until a killing frost or heavy snow threatens. Then harvest the leaves and store them in perforated plastic bags in a cold, damp root cellar (32° to 40°F, 90 to 95 percent humidity) for a week or two, or in the refrigerator for about a week. Blanched or cooked collard greens can be frozen.

How to Buy

Avoid yellow or limp leaves. You’ll need about 2 pounds to feed four people as a side