Preserving: Canning Coleslaw

 I told you about the mix up with my ordering Napa cabbage and they substituted regular green cabbage, didn't I? But I didn't give you the recipe. Well, here you go. I believe in waste not, want not.

First, I shredded all 10 lbs of the cabbage on my mandolin, or almost 29 cups shredded, This was no mean feat given my inability to stand for more than 25 minutes because of some brace issues. It took me the better part of two days. Another day shredding 3 cups of carrots and 2 cups of onions for that much shredded cabbage. The recipe (Ball Canning Book, 1966) calls for 1 cup of carrots and 1/2 cup of onions and bell pepper, but since I do not put bell peppers in my coleslaw, I substituted carrots for the bell pepper. I figured this was a safe enough to do since the mixture was basically being pickled for shelf stability. I wasn't wrong because I've made this recipe yearly since 1989 and hadn't been sick yet from it. So I feel fairly confident to share it.

Canned Coleslaw

7-8 pints, 3 quarts (I tripled this recipe)

What you'll need

1 green cabbage, short shredded,* approximately 5-6 lbs

2 TBSP pickling salt

3 carrots, short shredded*

1 cup onion, short shredded*

1/2 cup pickling salt

                               2 cups of water

                               1 1/2 cups of vinegar*

                              1 1/2 cups sugar*

                              1 TBS celery seed

                              1 TBS black pepper

                              1 TBS mustard seeds

Notes-* Only use green cabbage for this recipe. Colored cabbages results in all the other vegetables are dyed the color of the cabbage.

* Short shredded is vegetables shredded ( 1/8" to 1/4" knife shred and cut lengths of 3"-4") 

* For the vinegar in this recipe, I used 3/4 cup of white vinegar and 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar.

*If you like a sweeter version of coleslaw (think KFC), increase sugar to two cups. If doubling or tripling this recipe use the 1 1/2 cups of sugar measurement after the initial 2 cups.

Putting it all together

• The night before, shred all the vegetables.
• Add ingredients to a large bowl and sprinkle with 1/2 cup salt. Mix well, cover and place in refrigerator overnight (6-8 hours)
• The next morning, strain and rinse the salt from the vegetables.
• Prepare vinegar liquid in a large pot big enough to hold the liquid and all the vegetables. 
• Bring to a vinegar mixture to a boil. Boil one minute.
• Turn off the heat.
• Add the vegetables to the vinegar mixture.
• Mix well to distribute the spices.
• Ladle into sterilized jars, wipe rims, lid and ring the jars.
• Place jars into a simmering water bath canner- temp above 180 degrees
• Process 15 minutes for pints, 20 minutes for quarts.

 

Now, I don't mind a vinegar based slaw and would happily eat this straight out of the jar. But, my son-in-law abhors the vinegar taste in anything. I got a fix for this. I simply empty the jar into a strainer and rinse the slaw. I'll then add mayonnaise to it for the creamier base he likes. Because of the salt removing the extra "water" from the vegetables before canning, the vegetables keep their crisp texture with processing. I ended up with 15 pint jars of coleslaw at the ready for whenever I need this side dish in a snap.

That makes sense and cents.