The question of canning cabbage often comes up.
Neither the USDA nor the National Center for Home Food Preservation nor any of the reputable, science-based sources for trusted recipes have a recommendation for home canning plain cabbage at this time, either by itself or as an ingredient in pressure-canned recipes. Disregard any advice you see to the contrary on Youtube or elsewhere on the Internet.
This does NOT mean however that you can’t can cabbage in other ways.
Canning cabbage through pickling
You can can cabbage if you pickle it, either by itself (sauerkraut), or as an ingredient in a relish, chow, chutney, etc. The acidification involves makes it perfectly safe, and delicious, to can in these ways.
You can home can sauerkraut for instance (do not attempt to reduce the salt.)
You can use cabbage in many relish recipes such as chow chow, American Piccalilli, Dixie, etc, and other such pickled condiments.
Here’s a link for our recipes for canned preserves using cabbage.
Canning plain cabbage
It appears that, back when there was funding to study cabbage, perhaps in the 1930s and 1940s, the USDA researchers didn’t pursue researching safe canning procedures for cabbage because of quality issues: they decided, presumably, that by the time it was done, no one would want to eat it, so the research efforts would be wasted and they abandoned their studies. The National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) said on their blog in January 2015,
Cabbage tends to discolor and intensify in flavor when canned, so it is not recommended for canning due to quality issues (unless used for sauerkraut or in one of our canned relish recipes). Also, because it is more dense and rigid than greens such as spinach, the process time for Spinach and Other Greens would not necessarily be sufficient heat treatment to destroy pathogens and the final product could be under-processed. As you probably know, low acid foods like cabbage are at risk of causing botulism, so we do not just guess at a process time – the risk is too great. So I’m sorry to disappoint, but we do not have a recommendation for home canning cabbage as is. We currently do not have the resources to conduct individual product testing, and we do not know of others looking to do so at this time.” [1] NCHFP blog comment 23 January 2015. Accessed March 2015.
The Putting Food By authors say the researchers were probably wise to just call it a day on the research. They basically say that home canned cabbage would taste awful: “Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage: These discolor when canned and grow even stronger in flavor. So instead, freeze broccoli or Brussels sprouts, ferment cabbage as Sauerkraut (see how to can later); or use any or all in mixed pickles as liked.” [2] Hertzberg, Ruth; Greene, Janet; Vaughan, Beatrice (2010-05-25). Putting Food By: Fifth Edition (p. 137). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Ball did have canning recommendations for plain cabbage, which varied wildly over the years, but renounced all of them in 1977 (see history section below.)
Cabbage in home canned soups
Given that only vegetables with individual canning recommendations can be used in the NCHFP’s “free-choice” soup mix“, that means that cabbage, not having such a recommendation, cannot be:
The procedure for canning soup says ‘Each vegetable should be selected, washed, prepared and cooked as you would for canning a ‘hot pack’ according to USDA directions”, which means that there must be a canning recommendation for each added ingredient…. for this reason we cannot recommend adding cabbage…” [3] NCHFP blog entry 5 March 2015. Accessed March 2015.
So this means you can’t pressure can plain jars of cabbage, nor can you use it as an ingredient in their pressure canned soup mix recipe.
Use kale, spinach, mustard greens, or chard instead which do have canning recommendations.
Cabbage as an ingredient in other savoury recipes
There don’t seem to be any tested recipes from approved sources as of spring 2022 using cabbage as an ingredient in pressure-canned items. It seems very odd, considering that throughout history it has often fallen to the lowly cabbage to nourish people when all else failed.
HealthyCanning.com is aware of the unofficial recipe for Unstuffed Cabbage Roll that floats around safe canning groups and gets a nod of approval from them, but it hasn’t been lab-tested for density processing times, and there’s no individual processing time for cabbage to use towards the longest-time ingredient rule. We mention it only because even though it uses a great deal of cabbage and is processed for the same time as meat (75 and 90 minutes for pints / quarts), people do seem to rave about the flavours and no one mentions any strong, disagreeable cabbage taste.
History of home canning cabbage
To be clear: everything in this section is for historical reference purposes and is actively recommended against by the USDA as being unsafe. Do not attempt to can plain cabbage. If you see numbers such as this being cited, this (outdated Ball Blue Books) is where they are coming from.
The Ball Blue Book used to have directions for home canning plain cabbage.
In the L Edition of the Blue Book (late 1920s), they wanted you to water bath it for 120 minutes, ‘water-seal’ it for 90 minutes, pressure can at 5 to 10 lbs for 60 minutes or pressure can at 10 to 15 lbs for 40 minutes (times given for quarts.) (Page 18).
By 1930, Ball had revised their thinking.
Wash and blanch (boil) for 10 minutes in an open kettle. Add salt to blanching water in proportion of 1 level teaspoon salt to 1 quart water. Pack hot into clean BALL Jars, fill with blanching liquid, partly seal, and process for 2 hours in a Hot-Water Bath, or for 40 minutes in a Steam Pressure Cooker at 10 pounds. Remove from canner and seal at once.” (Ball Blue Book, O Edition, 1930. Page 12. Times for quart jars.)
Directions for cabbage appeared for the last time in the Ball Book Book in 1974, at which point the times had changed yet again:
Ball Blue Book, 29th Edition, 1974 reprint. The note you are directed to read says, “Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, rutabagas and turnips usually discolor when canned, and also develop a strong flavor.”
In 1977, the 30th edition of the Blue Book appeared. The year before, 1976, Ball had established its first ever ‘Fresh Preserving Test Kitchen’ [4]”We’re certainly canning experts — the first official Fresh Preserving Test Kitchen was started in 1976….” Harrold, Judly. Forward. Ball Blue Book, 37th edition, 2014., and, the foreword of that 30th edition notes, “Currently, a major ongoing research project concerning heat penetration is being conducted by a leading university. [ED: possibly Zottola et al at the University of Minnesota]” In this 30th edition, canning advice for cabbage was dropped completely, and just replaced with this note on page 65 of the book: “Freezing results in a better product than canning. See page 92 for proper instructions on freezing cabbage.”
[ED: To be clear, the above information is for historical information purposes only to show that yes, there were directions at one point in time, but they were dropped, and should not now be used for home canning under any circumstances.]
The USDA never backed canning plain cabbage. It was Ball who did, and they changed their mind several times over the years. As a private company, Ball couldn’t of course be expected to release any of the research behind its changes in thinking, as the USDA does. But the dropping of cabbage did coincide with its new test kitchens, and, with the new heat penetration studies, the results of which Ball would have had access to.
If you want to know whether Ball dropped plain cabbage for safety reasons based on the new information they had, or for quality reasons, you will need to contact Ball and ask. It’s Ball that had put out the directions: the USDA never had.
If you see these processing times for plain cabbage floating around the Internet, this is where they came from, and they were repudiated by Ball in 1977.
References
| ↑1 | NCHFP blog comment 23 January 2015. Accessed March 2015. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Hertzberg, Ruth; Greene, Janet; Vaughan, Beatrice (2010-05-25). Putting Food By: Fifth Edition (p. 137). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. |
| ↑3 | NCHFP blog entry 5 March 2015. Accessed March 2015. |
| ↑4 | ”We’re certainly canning experts — the first official Fresh Preserving Test Kitchen was started in 1976….” Harrold, Judly. Forward. Ball Blue Book, 37th edition, 2014. |
300 Private Proxies
Of course, what a splendid site and revealing posts, I definitely will bookmark your website.All the Best!
Rahel
Can you can red cabbage? Like the type you get in a glass in the grocery store, and if so how?? Help?
Healthy Canning
No. You can use it to make sauerkraut, though, and then can that…
Julia C Hollingsworth
WOULD I BE ABLE TO PRESSURE CAN “STUFFED CABBAGE” WHICH IS LEAVES OF CABBAGE ROTATED WITH CHOPPED MEAT AND TOMATO SAUCE (MY OWN). WOULD THAT BE SAFE? THANKS JUL
Healthy Canning
Freeze it.
Sheryl
The only way I can cabbage is either as sauerkraut or as an ingredient in chow chow with vinegar and salt as preservatives. I have found that I can freeze raw cabbage, dry, no additives. When cooked it retains its texture and flavor.
Annette Yocham
Do you blanch the cabbage first or just wash, vacuum seal and freeze?
Healthy Canning
Directions for freezing cabbage are on the National Center site: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/cabbage.html
Zazoo
So…… is it OK to add cabbage to a vegetable soup…. or not!?
Healthy Canning
Yes and no. No to adding it to jars of soup before canning. The National Center says (as quoted above on the page), “we cannot recommend adding cabbage…”
After canning, and upon opening a jar of your home-canned soup, go crazy, fill your boots, add whatever you want, including however much cabbage!
Miss Conserves
I find this cabbage recommandation from USDA very disappointing. Their issue with quality is very subjective. I have canned cabbage and yes, the smell while in the canner is pretty bad, but the taste after is good. I used this recipe, the author is a microbiologist well known in Québec for her tested recipes.
https://savoirfaireconserver.blogspot.ca/2010/11/boeuf-au-chou-et-tomate-recette.html
Ricardo also has a recipe using cabbage that is also very popular in Québec:
https://www.ricardocuisine.com/recettes/6859-bouilli-de-boeuf-et-de-legumes
Vicksky
I grow Portuguese Kale, which has slightly thicker leaves than, say, red russian kale or spinach. Is the Portuguese Kale not alright for canning because of these thicker leaves? It sort of seems like cabbage. Also Dinosaur Kale has very crinkled leaves.
Healthy Canning
The USDA doesn’t restrict varieties of Kale in its advice; it just says “kale”. That being said, you may wish to pose the question to some Master Food Preservers, as they have resources they can plug into to get answers in the background. Here’s a really helpful group of Master Food Preservers that may be able to help you:
https://www.facebook.com/UCCE-Master-Food-Preservers-of-El-Dorado-County-456649991034665
brensgrrl
I have canned kale (Russian, Portugese and Tuscan or “Dinosaur”) for many years. If you treat it the same as “Greens” as listed in the NCHFP and “So Easy to Preserve,” the results are excellent. Cabbage on the other hand, is a severe disappointment. I live in Pennsylvania in “Amish Country”–(near Lancaster and Perry Counties), and I was given both a Sauerkraut recipe and a recipe for canned cabbage (Pressure Canned). The Sauerkraut was delicious, but the canned cabbage left a lot to be desired. It was strong-smelling, off colored and bitter. It was safe to eat but it didn’t taste very good. I agree with the experts. Don’t waste your time canning cabbage. If you want to store canned cabbage, the commercial products are excellent–I learned their secret. Pressure canning in something called a “Shaka Retort,” a very expensive piece of commercial canning equipment. With this machine you get the same quality as if you had cooked it on your stovetop because this machine processes it at extremely high temps for a short period of time–too short for it to develop off colors and bad tastes. Here are some excellent canned cabbage products:
https://www.gloryfoods.com/products/seasoned-green-beans-other-vegetables/country-cabbage/
If you need canned cabbage that is not Sauerkraut, just visit your local grocery store or supermarket.
Donna
Thank you so much for the information you provide. We always used cabbage in our vegetable soup and canned it back in the day…but will now heed the warnings. Has there been any updates to the cabbage canning? Thanks again.
Healthy Canning
Hi Donna, that’s the latest info as of summer 2016. An underlying part of the issue could be that the National Center for Home Food Preservation, which now coordinates the USDA home canning testing, gets barely gets pocket change in terms of funding.
Judy Chastain
My brother and sister in law have been canning soup starters for a long time and has added cabbage in it all that time. We grow huge cabbages and I needed a way to preserve it…and so, I am about to do the same thing…so, I hope it works out…but like I said..they add squash and zucchini to it and it looks great!
Healthy Canning
Hi Judy, you would do so at your own risk. Please just don’t feed it to anyone else and expose them to the risk as well. At a minimum, you, or your brother and his wife, may wish to contact Ball by phone or their Facebook page and ask Ball why they renounced canning plain cabbage in 1977. (See history section above https://www.healthycanning.com/canning-cabbage/#history-of-home-canning-cabbage.) Otherwise, why not try instead kale, mustard greens, Swiss chard, or spinach in your soups? They are approved and are delicious in soup. The cabbage can be used for great chows (there are so many tested recipes for great chows around), or sauerkraut, or for frozen cabbage rolls. But if you are still tormented by the temptation of canning plain cabbage, please at least ask first ask Ball why they changed their mind and dropped it. Hope that helps.
Upyours
People have been preserving all kinds of food for centuries. Knock of the scare tactics.
Healthy Canning
And people have been dropping like flies over the millennia from improperly preserved food. Bravado, huffing and puffing means nothing to pathogenic bacteria. Those who don’t remember history are condemned to repeat it.
Shelly
I just pressure caned cabbage qnd it came ouy a little brown is it ok?
Healthy Canning
There are no safe lab-tested recommendations for canning plain cabbage. Who wants to get sick over something as cheap as cabbage?
Darrell Fluman
No scare tactics, merely stating that is not recommended, there are no tested recipes or procedures. With an abundance of caution, they state that there may be a risk in developing your own procedure.
Napolean sent out an edict to the sausage makers prohibiting them from selling sausauges to the troops because, as he lamented; “The sausages are killing more of the troops than the war”.
Do you wonder if there were people that ignored the edict and the underlying advice?
Botulism was in the unpreserved sausages.
And troops were dropping dead in their proverbial “tracks”.
brensgrrl
Cabbage takes on off colors and bitter tastes when it is canned, why would you want to add it to your soup and ruin the soup? Why not make the soup base without cabbage and add fresh cabbage when the soup base is boiling, after it is “decanted” as it were? Cabbage actually FREEZES very well. One could blanch and FREEZE the cabbage and add the frozen cabbage to decanted soup later.
Val Lempiala
100% agree! I chopped, blanched & froze cabbage in 1 cup baggies. Perfect! And, then, so easy to add to soups as they’re being heated.
Peggy
Thank you so much for this information, I made some delicious cabbage soup and ended up with rather a lot, I have been looking on the internet for hours to find out if I could can it. You are the only site that provided good info.I guess I have to freeze my soup.
Thanks again.