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by: Gerhild Fulson / Oma Gerhild shares easy, authentic German recipes you can trust, rooted in family tradition and featured in her cookbooks.
Published: November 01, 2009, Updated: June 12, 2025
My northern German braised cabbage (Schmorkohl) is traditional comfort food ... perfect with sausage and potatoes.
This recipe is the one I grew up with. Mutti (who came from the Berlin area) made it all the time because she knew that we loved it so much.
This recipe works for both green cabbage and savoy cabbage. Although the cooking time for the cabbage takes about one hour, the preparation time is fairly quick.
The most flavor comes from the browning of the cabbage. This, along with the browned onion, makes the resulting cabbage dish so delicious.
Leftovers are great when they are stirred into some leftover potatoes that have been fried with any bits of leftover meat and gravy. Such a yummy lunch the next day.
This is one of those recipes Mutti never wrote down. Why? It was made instinctively. Just chop, brown, and simmer. Done!
The main work is chopping that cabbage.
I find it easiest to quarter the cabbage and then remove that core from each piece.
Then start shredding it. Either keep the pieces 'long' like shown here, or cut the quarters in half lengthwise to get shorter shreds. Your choice.
Once you've done the chopping, it's time to start browning. Adding that bit of sugar to the onion, helps it to caramelize quicker ... and then browning some of that cabbage. It just amplifies the final flavor. Then, just add the liquid and it simmers away quietly on the stove.
Stir occasionally to make sure there's enough liquid to keep it from burning, but that's it. Yummy cabbage!
In the Rhineland dialect, white cabbage is often called kappes. Kappes also has another meaning, and is lovingly and cheekily used to describe something as nonsense or rubbish
Fun fact: Say “So ein Kappes” and you'll sound like a Rhinelander brushing off someone's tall tale.
This is an easy way to learn how to cook cabbage and is one of my favorites to include among my Oktoberfest recipes. It's a comfort food and goes so well for cool autumn days and cold winter nights.
Looking for another great cabbage recipe? Check out my Bavarian braised cabbage. It's just a bit sweeter than this one, the way many like it in southern Germany.
My northern German braised cabbage (Schmorkohl) is traditional comfort food ... perfect with sausage and potatoes.
Prep Time:
15 minutes
Cook Time:
65 minutes
Total Time:
80 minutes
Servings:
makes 4 to 6 servings
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Unless otherwise noted recipe, images and content © Just like Oma | www.quick-german-recipes.com
Recipe updated June 12, 2025
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