The cultivation of cabbage began at the end of the Stone Age. She enjoyed great respect in ancient Rome, from where, apparently, it spread throughout the world. The Romans knew several types of cabbage. Of these, "smooth" cabbage had large stems, wide leaves and a large head of cabbage. "Curly" - was good in nature and in appearance, differed from the first grade in significantly greater medicinal power. "Gentle" - had incomparable healing properties.
Cabbage was also known in Ancient Egypt, but only in Ancient Greece in the 6th-4th centuries BC. she gained wide recognition and extraordinary popularity.
In Russia, cabbage has been known since the 11th century. It is mentioned in the "Izbornik Svyatoslav" that has come down to us. It is believed that the ancient Slavs received it from the Greco-Roman colonists of the Crimea and other regions of the Black Sea region. Together with the plant, they adopted the name, altering it somewhat in their own way. So, from the Latin word "kaput" - "head" and our "cabbage" was born, which means "capitate".
A. V. Grozdova, editor-in-chief of the journal "Practical Dietetics"
The food, which we classify in absentia as Old Russian cuisine, is often historically not such. Many people know that Peter I brought potatoes and various meat dishes from abroad, and during the time of Catherine, many French chefs appeared in Russia, who introduced broths, various sauces and snacks into the diet. But, perhaps, no one suspects that black bread, buckwheat or onions are not traditionally Russian products, but innovations brought in at different times.
Initially, the Russian national cuisine was not as diverse as it is now. For example, under Prince Vladimir (IX-X centuries) there was still no carrots or cabbage, not to mention tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins and even beets, which seem to us to be one of the most Russian vegetables. Why are there beets, the prince did not even have onions on the table, which will appear only in the next century!
What happened then? There was a radish. They cooked it, fried it, baked pies with it. Apparently, since then, there has been a saying "Tired of worse than a bitter radish." Try to eat only radish all winter until spring - you will really get bored. Only the radish then was not quite the same as it is now. Firstly, it was much larger, there were varieties with root crops weighing up to 10-12 kg. Nowadays, radishes of this size have remained only in Japan, they are called "daikon" and can weigh up to 20 kg or more. Not every adult will raise such a radish. These radishes are not bitter at all. Both in Europe and in our country, when new and more delicious vegetables appeared, giant radishes were simply forgotten.
The second important vegetable was turnip. The yellow, juicy varieties of turnips are a Russian invention. In Europe, turnips are less familiar, although even there it is one of the most ancient cultures. In Latin, turnip is called "brine". The Russian people borrowed this plant, along with the name, from the Romans back in ancient times.
Garlic was also familiar to the Russian people. Remember the saying "There is a baked bull in the field, in one side a chiseled knife, and in the other - crushed garlic."
But it cannot be said that the table of our ancestors was poor. Until we were familiar with vegetable crops, we ate a lot of wild plants and mushrooms. In the forests and steppes of Ukraine, around Kiev under Prince Vladimir, dense forests rustled, several species of wild onions grew, which are still harvested for food. Wild sorrel is still harvested. In the old days, it was fermented and dried for the winter. We ate other wild herbs that we had completely forgotten about, such as quinoa.
They collected the leaves of wild mallow (they are eaten today and even specially grown in Georgia). They also ate the roots of various wild-growing plants, such as parsnips, goatbeards, and chisets. And there were plenty of mushrooms and berries. Back in the 19th century. for every Muscovite a year there were almost 40 kg of mushrooms, and under Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko there were even more of them.
It is interesting that only those that have plates below were considered mushrooms, and everything that we now refer to as tubular mushrooms - boletus, boletus, white - were called "lips", and they wrote: "Mushrooms and lips."
Peas have been one of the main dishes since ancient times. It is not for nothing that they say about incredibly distant times that it was during the reign of Tsar Pea. Now we mainly cook soup from peas, and even then quite rarely, but in ancient times they cooked porridge from it, grinded flour and baked pancakes, pies from pea dough and stuffed with peas. By the way, in India, pea flour cakes are still the most common dish.
The earliest Russian dish is also considered to be ukha (once all soups in Russia were called either ear - "ear" or "shty"). Later, only fish first courses, which were cooked from different varieties of fish, began to be called fish soup: as a rule, ruffs, “small and inferior fish,” were used for the broth, and only then valuable fish was added.
The most delicious fish was considered to be halibut. Note, in the old Russian fairy tale "About Ruff Ershovich, son of Shchetinnikov" it is said that "the mistress of the sea white lake-halibut-fish" sits on the sea throne, and sturgeons are on her parcels. It is not for nothing that one of the most common dishes was millet porridge with fish. Then millet porridge was also held in high esteem. Millet has been grown in Russia since time immemorial. His crops are mentioned in the postscript of the Kiev Chronicle dated 1095.
Historians, for example, argue that it was Russian porridge that played an important role in the fact that Suvorov's troops overcame the Alps. Every Russian house has cereals: buckwheat, semolina, pearl barley, millet and others. Previously, porridge was cooked in large cast iron - with milk, pumpkin, sugar; in Russian ovens they were often not just cooked, but baked until crisp (such is the famous Guryev porridge).
The richness of the Russian table is also explained by the fact that Russian cuisine "tried on" a huge variety of the best foreign dishes.
So, the most familiar to us semolina porridge appeared much later, and the appearance of corn grits had to wait another 600 years. Rice was very rare and was called "Sorochin millet".
Quite often, our ancestors ate oatmeal, but not at all the same as now. When we use the word "oatmeal", we immediately imagine porridge from cereals "oatmeal" (produced from steamed, dried, crumbled and flattened oat grains), which appeared less than 200 years ago. In Russia (IX-X centuries), porridge was eaten from whole oat grain, peeled from the husk, which was steamed for a long time in the oven to make it soft. And they filled the porridge with butter, linseed or hemp oil. Sunflower oil will also appear very soon. Perhaps, on major holidays, the princes also ate olive oil, which was brought from overseas, from distant Byzantium.
A century and a half later, new products and dishes appeared in the diet of the Russian people. So, buckwheat at that time was just entering into use. It was brought by Greek monks who came to Russia from Byzantium. Until now, we call this plant buckwheat, that is, Greek groats. In fact, its homeland is North India, where it is called "black rice".
At that time, onions appeared, which immediately won an honorable place. "Onion from seven ailments" - said about him among the people. This vegetable has been cultivated in Egypt since time immemorial (the builders of the pyramids received a few cakes a day, a couple of onions and a handful of olives). From Egypt, onions came to Europe, and then to us. And onions, apparently, came to Egypt from Asia, where wild types of onions with large bulbs are still found in the mountains.
Then the carrots were not like modern ones - with white roots. Wild carrots are a perennial growing in meadows throughout Europe, and even now you can see them even near Moscow. But in Europe, carrots were still considered a delicacy at that time, its mass cultivation began only 200 years later.
Another vegetable that appeared on the Russian table was the well-known beetroot. We, together with the beetroot itself, got its name from the Byzantines, who spoke Greek. "Sfekeli" is a word apparently derived from "sphere" - "ball".
Actually, beets have been grown for almost 3.5 thousand years, but wild beets can still be found in Western Europe and on the Caspian Sea coast. This is a short grass that does not form a large root. Initially, they ate leaves and only then began to select plants with thick roots, until they got the modern beets. The first roots were white and yellow, and red ones were first mentioned in the 3rd century. BC e. The beetroot is also cultivated and is called chard. Now the multi-colored chard is returning to our beds again.
In the XII-XIII centuries. exotic spices began to appear in Russia. Our ancestors were very fond of adding them to food in large quantities. They were available (because they were inexpensive) due to the fact that the road from Central Asia, from where they were transported to Europe, partly went through Russian land. For comparison: in Europe, for example, black pepper was so expensive that they were paid taxes and salaries for soldiers.
Around the XI century. cabbage has finally appeared in Russia. Our beloved and familiar cabbage did not come to us with the Mongols, as many believe. She began her movement from the south. The southern tribes of the Slavs first learned about this vegetable from the Greco-Roman colonists who lived in the Black Sea regions. Over time, we got acquainted with this vegetable culture in Russia.
Soon, our ancestors learned to ferment cabbage for the winter, and it became one of the staple foods. Cabbage began to displace the usual wild-growing herbs, because it turned out to be more productive and better kept fresh, and sauerkraut, in general, when properly stored, "survives" until the new harvest. And you can use it in different ways - boil, fry, stew.
Many new products appeared in Russia with the beginning of the Tatar-Mongol invasion. First of all, cucumbers. The first seeds of cucumbers were found in the Volga region in the excavations of settlements of the 11th century, where the Horde stood at that time. Cucumbers quickly gained popularity and after a hundred years were mentioned in the lists of monastery food, both fresh and salted and soaked in vinegar. And on special occasions, cucumbers were served with honey.
Along with cucumbers, melons appeared first in the Volga region, and then in other places, which also come from Central Asia. There melon - not sweet after dinner, but normal food. Even now, in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, it is not uncommon for a child to go to school for breakfast with a cake and a few slices of dried melon.
Melons took root in our country worse than cucumbers: they need more heat, and they do not grow everywhere. In addition, cucumbers are eaten green, and the melon must be ripe. But the appearance of watermelons will wait for a long time, they come from South Africa and will not appear in Europe and Russia soon.
It seems that mustard also came to us from India at the same time. There, its seeds are added to food as a spice and not at all like ours: they are first fried in a frying pan until the seeds begin to jump on it, and then put in rice, peas, cabbage and other food. In India, they also eat mustard greens, prepare salads from it.
The dish, which we now call salad, was also known in Ancient Russia, only there it was called "crumbly", because everything that was put into it was first cut into small pieces - crumbled. Dressed crumbly with butter or sour cream. Mustard was first used to produce oil, which is still being made, it is dark and aromatic.
At the same time, the first mentions of pears appeared, and they were called quite differently - "blew". Our small and sour wild pears, which are rarely found in the forests of southern Russia, remained pears, but large and tasty garden forms were called duli even under Peter I. It is difficult to say whether they came to us from the East or from the West, but they were a rarity. The famous Russian appetizer (which, by the way, Pushkin loved very much) was pickled apples and pears (now, for the most part, they are unjustifiably forgotten in the national diet).
The most important plant that appeared in the XI-XII centuries. in the fields as a separate grain crop, it became rye. Prior to this, wild rye was found in wheat crops as a weed, but almost no attention was paid to it. It is convenient because it grows where there is not enough heat for wheat. But the bread from it is heavy, sticky and almost does not rise. In order to get fluffy bread, a little wheat is added to rye flour. And the sourdough needs a different one - yeast alone will not make such a dough.
It turns out that neither Prince Vladimir, nor Yuri Dolgoruky, nor even, possibly, Alexander Nevsky, have tried black bread, which the whole world considers the favorite food of Russians.
Another interesting fact: before the beginning of the 19th century. caviar was considered a fish by-product, which was eaten mainly by representatives of the poor (to eat bread or empty potatoes with salted caviar). By the end of the century, caviar had become popular with Russian merchants and aristocrats. Then it was in abundance (the rivers that hinder spawning had not yet been blocked off, the hydroelectric power station had not been poisoned with industrial chemistry), and it was given in whole barrels (such a gift, for example, was made by the famous wrestler Ivan Zaikin to the writer Alexander Kuprin).
Perhaps no other vegetable has attracted such close attention of researchers of all times and peoples as cabbage. Philosophers and historians, copper and cooks have left us numerous instructions and even whole monographs about its magical properties. According to one of the legends, the thunderer Jupiter, working on the explanation of two contradictory sayings of the oracle, was sweating from a terrible overstrain. Several large drops rolled down from the forehead of the father of the gods to the ground. It is from these drops that the cabbage grew. The story, of course, is uncomplicated, but in it you can feel the respectful attitude that the Romans had for the ancient vegetable. Apparently the word "cabbage" itself is somehow connected with this legend, so. How it came from the ancient Roman "kaputum", which means "head" in Russian. Many peoples dispute each other's right to be called the homeland of cabbage. For example, Georgians compete with Italians and Greeks. According to Professor G. Japaridze, who has studied the history of the origin of cabbage, its homeland is the Colchis lowland of Georgia, since it is in these places that a rare variety of plants similar to cabbage, which are called "kezhera", is found. Cabbage was prized for its high gastronomic quality. It was eaten with pleasure with corned beef or ham. The peasants of ancient Rome were especially fond of cabbage with corned beef and beans. Usually cabbage was flavored with olive oil, but when combined with fatty pork, it was good without oil. Delicate cabbage stalks were used to make salads with olive oil and a little vinegar added. The student and friend of Aristotle, the ancient Greek naturalist and philosopher, one of the first botanists of antiquity Theophrastus (372 - 287 BC) in his famous work "Research on Plants" described in some detail three varieties of cabbage that were cultivated in those distant times the Athenians. Another ancient Greek philosopher Chrysippus (280 208/205 BC) valued cabbage so much that he dedicated a whole book to it. In it, he examines the effect of cabbage on all organs of the human body. The ancient Greeks and Romans generally attached great importance to cabbage, considering it a medicine that cured almost all diseases. So, she was credited with the ability to soothe headaches, cure deafness, relieve insomnia and various internal diseases. Cabbage as a medicine was studied by the ancient Greek physician Dioscorides, the ancient Roman writer Catanus the Elder, the physician of the times of Tiberius and Claudius - Scribonius, the Roman writer and Scientist Pliny the Elder, and many others.
Not weakened, but rather increased attention to cabbage in the Middle Ages. Scientist, philosopher, physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) significantly supplemented and largely revised the ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans about the healing properties of cabbage. He gave her quite a lot of space in his encyclopedia of theoretical and clinical medicine "The Canon of Medicine". One of the first Russian sources in which cabbage is mentioned is Svyatoslav's Izbornik dated 1073. A later chronicle says that the Smolensk prince Rostislav Mstislavovich in 1150 gave his friend Manuel a skit. In the old days, a vegetable garden where cabbage was grown was called a skit-grower in the old days. This word is often found in ancient Russian literary sources. Vegetable gardens with cabbage everywhere surrounded Russian settlements. The abundance of cabbage in Russia amazed even seasoned foreigners. For example, a certain Cornelius de Bouin wrote in the 13th century: Common white cabbage grows in Muscovy, which the Russians store large reserves of and which the commoners eat twice a day.
It is known that the Slavs began to cultivate cabbage no later than the 9th century. The most reliable and widespread version is that the cabbage with the Greco - Roman colonists who lived in the Crimea and other regions of the Black Sea coast first came to the southern Slavic tribes. Hardly any other cuisine in the world knows so many dishes based on cabbage. In the menu of Russians, she has always been in one of the first places. And today we eat cabbage 7 times more than, for example, Americans. Is this not a confirmation that the Russians quite rightly include cabbage in the category of their national foodstuffs? Currently, the cabbage genus has about 150 varieties. Most of the cultivated species come from the Mediterranean and China. The most ancient of them are deciduous, as well as cauliflower (for the first time in Russia it was mentioned only in 1825), kohlrabi, Chinese and Peking cabbage. All types of cabbage (except cauliflower and Peking cabbage) are biennial plants. In our country, cabbage occupies about 30 percent of vegetable crops, and of course, white cabbage accounts for the lion's share. Of the other species, the most common are cauliflower, red cabbage and Brussels sprouts.
Sauerkraut ... Who hasn't tried it! Today, like hundreds of years ago, it occupies an important place in our diet. This is a great appetizer, an excellent side dish for meat dishes, aromatic mince for pies. Cabbage is fermented in many countries of the world, but in few places it is used in such quantities as in Russia. And such a variety of sauerkraut dishes can hardly be found anywhere else. Perhaps this is due to the fact that during the long Russian winters, it was sauerkraut, along with turnips, that made up the main "green" on the peasant table. The American scientist L. Bragg wrote very fascinatingly and sensibly about the "amazing healing and health-improving qualities" of sauerkraut. He suggests that sauerkraut, because it is well preserved, was perhaps one of the first vitamin foods that sailors took with them on long journeys. In any case, Captain James Cook, who discovered the Hawaiian Islands, attributes the success of this discovery ... to sauerkraut - a daily portion of it saved sailors from scurvy. Bregg also notes that the history of the emergence of sauerkraut goes back to the days of the Great Wall of China. Without this legendary wall, writes Bregg, we would never have known about the delicious virtues of sauerkraut ... The hardworking slaves, the Chinese coolies who built this monstrous structure, snaking 1,500 miles across Asia, were hardy and strong thanks to cabbage. , as an additive to which they ate rice and soybeans. Cabbage was fermented with caraway seeds, celery, dill and juniper berries, and lo and behold! a wonderful new taste was born, sour and pleasant! .. Several thousand years will descend despite the Great Wall of China, Genghis Khan plundered China. His Tatar hordes adopted sauerkraut and added it to the loot when they marched through Asia and Europe - they left behind ruins, destruction and ... sauerkraut.
The Slavs, even before they knew cabbage, were salting wild-growing herbs. Cabbage, on the other hand, became known to them at least three hundred years before the invasion of Genghis Khan, so it can be assumed that our ancestors had a good command of the art of pickling it long before him. And it is unlikely that the Russian people took over any food from the invaders. Harvesting of cabbage for the winter in Russia took place in late autumn, when at the first mild frosts the cabbage forks "curl up more" and become harder. A picturesque picture was presented by a Russian village during the preparation of cabbage. Throughout the village one could hear the clatter of the saws on the troughs. For cutting cabbage in every house there was a special trough, which was not used for anything else. In the landowners' houses, the troughs were very long, and when cutting cabbage, 10-14 women were placed behind each of them. These troughs were made of thick boards, the best ones were hollowed out of lime or oak logs. Cabbage was used, as it would be said today, according to a waste-free technology. The green parts of the stumps were washed, chopped and fed to livestock, like all other felling waste. Cows are very eager to eat cabbage and, when added to feed, produce more milk. The amount of harvested chopped sauerkraut was determined by the number of tubs. A tub and a bucket were common measures for sauerkraut, as were quarters and quads for bread, by the way. According to its quality, sauerkraut was divided into gray, semi-white and white. The gray one was cut from some of the upper green leaves, the semi-white one - from the whole head of cabbage, and the white one - only from the middle, that is, from white, steeply rolled inner leaves. Common people used gray cabbage mainly for cabbage soup, and semi-white and white cabbage was eaten on fast days with kvass or vegetable oil. When cutting, salt and peeled onions were put into gray cabbage, and spices, such as caraway seeds, were put into white cabbage for smell. It was customary among the Russians to ferment cabbage and whole heads of cabbage, sometimes in halves, in tubs, vats with chopped cabbage. But the thrifty housewives left the best, hard heads of cabbage fresh.
The history of cabbage
The center of origin of cabbage is the Mediterranean regions of Western Europe and North Africa. Cabbage began to be cultivated over 4 thousand years ago. From Ancient Iberia about 2.5 thousand years ago, it spread to Egypt, where it was grown as a vegetable and medicinal plant. One of the Egyptian papyri mentions a peasant who " gets up in the morning to water the leeks; he goes to bed late for the cabbage".
Cabbage was widely cultivated in the ancient world. In ancient Greece, the famous physician Hippocrates (V-IV centuries BC) used cabbage in the treatment of certain diseases and to improve health. According to the famous saying of Pythagoras, "cabbage is a vegetable that maintains vigor and a cheerful, calm mood".
In ancient Rome, cabbage was more common than in Greece, and was considered the first plant among vegetable crops there. Macro Porcius Cato (III-II centuries BC), Pliny (I century BC), Columella (I century BC) wrote about the cultivation of cabbage in their treatises. It is believed that the word "cabbage" comes from the ancient Roman "caput", which means "head" in Russian.
In Russia, cabbage began to grow a long time ago - our cool, humid conditions suited the cold-resistant moisture-loving cabbage well. It is believed that cabbage came to the territory occupied by modern Russia from southern countries along with extensive colonization in the 7th-5th centuries BC. by the Greeks of the Black Sea coast. Colonization, later under Roman influence, was accompanied by the development of agriculture with the introduction of intensive crops, incl. and cabbage. Through the Greco-Roman colonizers, cabbage spread to the agricultural tribes of more northern regions, gradually moving across the continent.
Therefore, the Eastern Slavs - the ancestors of the Russian Slavs, having settled on the territory that later became part of Kievan Rus, have already met cabbage here. But they may well have known this plant themselves. In any case, historical information testifies to a fairly high level of the state of this culture in Kievan Rus by the 11th century:in 1073, the "Izbornik Svyatoslav" describes the storage and use of white cabbage as an everyday habitual food product. The cabbage was exactly head, as evidenced by the name of the cabbage in Old Russian - "cabbage", which has Latin roots ("caput" in Latin - "head").
Cabbage has always been the main vegetable in Russia, and had an exceptional food value. It was grown in every vegetable garden in the country. This was noted even by foreign travelers who came to Moscow Russia. Cornelius de Bruin, who visited Moscow in 1702, wrote: "In Muscovy, white cabbage grows in abundance, the Russians harvest large quantities of it, and commoners eat it twice a day." Long-standing traditions and extensive experience in cabbage growing allowed the famous Russian gardener E.A. Grachev at the Vienna Agricultural Exhibition in 1875 received an honorary medal "For Progress" for cabbage varieties. Heads of cabbage of these varieties reached a diameter of 70 cm with high density, whiteness and excellent taste.
Currently, due to its resistance to cold weather, cabbage is the main crop in open ground in Russia, especially in the northern and middle parts, where it occupies up to 50% of the area of all vegetables.
Candidate of Agricultural Sciences D.A. Kostylev
In the autumn, when we are preparing to harvest a good harvest from cabbage beds, I invite you to find out how and where we got white cabbage.
Many peoples dispute each other's right to be called the homeland of cabbage.
The name "cabbage" did not appear immediately: the ancient Iberians called this vegetable a strange word "ashi".
According to one of the legends, the thunderer Zeus, while working to clarify two contradictory sayings of the oracle, was sweating from a terrible overexertion. Several large drops rolled down from the forehead of the "father of the gods" to the ground. It is from these drops that the cabbage grew. The story, of course, is uncomplicated, but in it you can feel the respectful attitude that the Romans had for the ancient vegetable.
Apparently, the word "cabbage" itself is somehow connected with this legend, since it comes from the ancient Roman "kaputum", which means "head" in Russian.
The homeland of white cabbage is the Mediterranean coast.
Man began to cultivate cabbage more than 5 thousand years ago, as evidenced by archaeological excavations. Even before our era, this plant appeared in Ancient Iberia (the ancient Georgian kingdom on the territory of the historical region of Kartli, mentioned by ancient and Byzantine authors), and subsequently spread to Greece, Egypt, Rome.
Cabbage originally came from wild collard greens, with smooth and curly leaves. Its subsequent forms were low in sugar and dry matter, loose. For millennia, man has managed to obtain a wide variety of species and forms from wild cabbage.
Cabbage was also known in Ancient Egypt, but only in ancient Greece in the 6th-4th centuries BC. she gained wide recognition and extraordinary popularity.
In Italy, the wild plant was introduced into cultivation. With the beginning of a new era, the cultivation of white cabbage began to be practiced in the Balkans, in the Transcaucasus.
In Kievan Rus, cabbage has been known since the 11th century. It is mentioned in the "Izbornik Svyatoslav" that has come down to us. It is believed that the ancient Slavs received it from the Greco-Roman colonists of the Crimea and other regions of the Black Sea region.
Together with the plant, they adopted the name, altering it somewhat in their own way. As mentioned above, from the Latin word "kaput" - "head", and our "cabbage" was born, which means "capitate".
According to archival data, the cultivation of cabbage in Kievan Rus began in the XI-XII centuries. Ancient manuscripts dated 1073 and 1150 mention its existence and give recommendations for its use and storage. "Domostroy" (XVI) directly refers to the cultivation of cabbage and its use for food and for feeding livestock. During the reign of Peter I, the cultivation of this culture developed intensively and soon it became an irreplaceable and familiar food product.
For the first time they started pickling cabbage in Kievan Rus.
Popular customs and signs speak of the popularity of cabbage in Russia. A lot of them are dedicated to this healthy vegetable. For example, May 18 - Arina the nursery. Much attention was paid to the planting of cabbage. Having planted the first head of cabbage, they covered it with a pot, and the pot on top with a white tablecloth, so that the heads of cabbage would grow large, white and strong. They even pronounced a conspiracy for cabbage seedlings.
Today, white cabbage is grown throughout the former Soviet Union. It occupies the largest cultivated areas in comparison with other vegetable crops.
Cabbage was prized for its high gastronomic quality. It was eaten with pleasure with corned beef or ham. The peasants of ancient Rome were especially fond of cabbage with corned beef and beans. Usually cabbage is flavored with olive oil, but when combined with fatty pork, it was good without oil. Delicate cabbage stalks were used to make salads with olive oil and a little vinegar added.
A student and friend of Aristotle, an ancient Greek naturalist and philosopher, one of the first botanists of antiquity - Theophrastus (372-287 BC), in his famous work "Research on Plants" described in some detail three varieties of cabbage, which in those distant times cultivated by the Athenians. Another ancient Greek philosopher, Chrysippus (280-205 BC) appreciated cabbage so much that he dedicated a whole book to it. In it, he examines the effect of cabbage on all organs of the human body.
To be continued
