The archive contains only articles from the on-line pages
|
I remember one December, inviting friends round for supper of roast pork and deliciously stewed spiced apple and red cabbage. It also involved my flatmate’s freshly painted white walls and, ultimately, phoning my mother for advice on removing bright red stains off bright white walls.
Red cabbage, as well as being a fantastic winter vegetable, contains a compound called anthocyanin which gives it its beautiful red colour.
Chemistry teachers can use red cabbage juice to liven up a lesson on acids and alkalis. Boiled red cabbage is neutral, add an alkali and it will turn blue, add an acid such as lime or vinegar, it will turn red.
As a result of too much enthusiastic stirring of red cabbage, my flatmate’s walls were now Jackson Pollack-red. She was not impressed by my mother’s advice to add some bicarbonate of soda to the stains, as the last thing she wanted was a chemical experiment on her walls. But a dose of alkali neutralised the red splashes they were easy to clean, and harmony was restored to the dining table.
Stewed, spiced red cabbage with apples is a wonderful partner to meat at this time of year, whether you serve it with pork sausages and mashed potatoes or elevate it to
