red cabbage, red currant jam, and a memory

I have a memory of the red cabbage my Danish grandmother would prepare for holiday meals. . . and then when she was no longer there to prepare it, red cabbage came from the store, in a jar. Year after year we passed the red cabbage, more for my grandmother's memory than because we were eager to spoon it onto our plates--although the color is lovely, bright purple.

So, this Thanksgiving I decided to search for a recipe for red cabbage-could I duplicate my grandmother's? I discovered lots of recipes for German red cabbage, a few for Norwegian red cabbage, and then. . . there it was: Danish Red Cabbage- it looked authentic:

In Denmark it is traditional to serve a cooked pickled red cabbage for Christmas Eve, a great side dish to any roast duck, turkey, or goose!

Thanksgiving day, the girls and I were cooking - no duck or goose here, but the turkey was roasting. . . and me? well, I was shredding red cabbage; my authentic recipe calls for a medium head of red cabbage, water, red currant jam, sugar, vinegar, salt-simmer with the lid on.

As I was draining some of the lovely purple juice down the sink, Mercy exclaimed, "Ugh, what's that smell?" Then I realized that it was a good kitchen smell from the recesses of my memory-and I told her, "for me, this is aThanksgiving smell from long ago!"

So, it was good-that pickled Danish Red Cabbage-both the memory and the dish.

(I wonder if the left-overs would be a tasty accompaniment to Christmas tamales?)