Monday, November 11, 2019

My Own German Coleslaw

Cabbage is a popular part of the cuisine of the German cultural areas of Europe, and indeed for other European cultures too. Cabbage is a hearty plant, generally cheap, and that has kept it on many home menus during good times and bad. "Coleslaw" is a term English took from Dutch "koolsla" (cabbage salad), and the "cole" part is a pretty common Germanic form derived from Latin "caulis" many, many centuries ago, and that Germanic borrowing gave English "cawel," a word for cabbage and related plants, like kale (kale is simply another spelling of cawel). Before the word cabbage was borrowed from French (which had it from Latin), English had borrowed another Latin word, "brassica," which was also used for cabbage. German uses the word "Krautsalat" for "cabbage salad;" that is, "coleslaw" in English. The standard German word for cabbage is "Kohl," the close relative of English "cole," which in English was once spelled "col," and before that as, "cawel." As noted above, the "slaw" part is from Dutch, and it was a contracted form of "salad," another word of Latin derivation.
  
This is my own recipe, not completely following along the typical German line for such a cabbage salad.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups green cabbage, shredded or chopped
2 1/2 cups red cabbage, shredded or chopped
1/2 cup carrot, peeled and chopped
1 medium apple, cored, then chopped (I leave the peel on) 
4 or 5 slices bacon, fried, drained on paper towels, and chopped 
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 to 1/2 cup honey
(optional) 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar or more honey
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons regular olive oil (or sunflower seed oil)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Put the the green and red cabbage, the carrot, the apple and the bacon into a large bowl; mix everything by hand. In a bowl or a large cup or a blender (I use a large measuring cup), add the honey, the vinegar, the mayonnaise, the sour cream, the oil, the salt and the pepper. Whisk, blend or use a stick blender to mix everything together well until smooth. Taste to see if you prefer the dressing to be sweeter; in which case, add the sugar or more honey and mix well again. Add about half of the dressing to the cabbage mixture and begin mixing it all together (I mix it with my hands). Add the remainder of the dressing and mix it all in well (the apple pieces must be coated or they will turn brown). Taste the slaw and mix in any additional salt and/or pepper to your preference. Refrigerate the slaw for a minimum of 2 hours, by which time the main components will give off some liquid to the salad.      



WORD HISTORY:
Couth (Uncouth)-"Couth" is closely related to the verb "can" and to the adjective "cunning," both words from the Germanic roots of English. It is a little more distantly related to "know," another word from the Germanic roots of English. "Couth" goes back to Indo European "gnoh," which had the notion of "to have knowledge." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "kunnanan," with the same general meaning, and the participle/adjective form "kunþaz" (known). The Germanic verb gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "cunnan," which meant, "to know, to be able to do something (by having knowledge of), to be familiar with." The first and third person singular present form of "cunnan" was "cann." The Germanic past participle/adjective form gave Old English "cuþ" (="cuth"), which was used adjectivally and meaning, "known, famous, familiar." The participle form "cuth" then became "couthe," then "coude," then about 1500 an "l" was inserted,^ giving us the modern "could." Back to the adjective "cuþ," which became "cuth," then "couth." It's negative form was "uncuþ" (uncuth), meaning, "unknown, strange, unfriendly." This then became "uncouth," with the meaning emphasizing "behavior beyond known standards, ill mannered, crude, rough." This then influenced adjectival "couth" in its emphasized meaning to, "polite, well mannered, refined" (from the notion of "behavior by known and familiar standards"). "Couth" has fallen out of common usage, but "uncouth" is still used. There are MANY relatives in the other Germanic languages, some of which are: German has the adjective "kundig" (knowledgeable, knowing, and German once also had "kund," meaning, "known, obvious," and like its English cousin, German had "unkundi," the equivalent to "uncouth"), Low German "künnig" (knowledgeable, knowing), Dutch has the now old style "kond" (known), Icelandic "kunnur" (known), Danish "kyndig" (knowledgeable), Swedish "kunnig" (knowledgeable), Norwegian "kunnskapsrik" (knowledgeable).

^ The "l" was seemingly added to the word following the pattern of "should" and "would," although the parent words of both of these (shall and will) have "l" in the spellings. Of course, to make this even more confusing, the "l" is not pronounced in ANY of these words; at least, not in modern English.     

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