Vinegar is used today to retain color in red cabbage. Greeks praised cabbage as a natural inebriate. They thought it absorbed wine and other spirits. Slavs, Germans and Scandinavians incorporated cabbage into their daily diets, but it was a Frenchman, Jacques Cartier, who planted cabbage in New World soil in 1541. Domestic cabbage is less compact, with curled leaf edges.
New cabbage is smaller than domestic, bright and fresh green, with a slightly pointed head.
Savoy cabbage is pale- to dark green with crinkled leaves, overlapped in a loose head. Red cabbage is loose-leafed in red to purple hues. Celery or Chinese cabbage is pale green to almost white, long, slender and crisp. Select cabbage that is firm, solid and heavy. Store in a refrigerator crisper or closed plastic bag.