liberty cabbage
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: Coined during the First World War as a substitute for the word sauerkraut, which had been borrowed from German around 1600.
Senses: examples: text: The largest quantity of vegetables prepared was Liberty cabbage, 661 barrels. If these barrels were placed lengthwise in a row, they would reach a distance of almost one-half a mile.
ref: 1918, The Institution Quarterly (Illinois), volume 9, issue 1, 31 March 1918, page 286
text: "Liberty cabbage," made in Germany and there still known as sauerkraut, has been served at many American army messes during the week, five carloads of the edible having been left behind by the withdrawing German army.
ref: 1918 November 30, “Liberty Cabbage”, in The New York Times:
text: A glance at the following menus gives an idea of the quality and variety of food served the employe[e]s: [...] Supper—Cream of Barley Soup, Wieners and Liberty Cabbage, Pork Chops, Fried Potatoes, Stewed Corn, [...]
ref: 1919 January, The National Association of Corporation Schools Bulletin, volume 6, number 1, page 124:
text: We noticed the monstrous cabbage weighing eighteen pounds, but this was nothing new to us as in the past few days we have made thirty barrels of liberty cabbage.
ref: 1919 October, Joseph Hermann, Milton Dentzler, “Greenhouse”, in The Industrial Enterprise, volume 26, number 10, page 11:
text: Guinea Fowls with Liberty Cabbage [...] Clean and disjoint guinea fowls. Season pieces by rolling them in a little flour [...] Cover Liberty cabbage with hot water, add smoked bacon and sausages.
ref: 1919, Marion Harris Neil, The Thrift Cook Book, page 109:
text: September.—Made 8 hhds. of Liberty Cabbage; housed onions, tomatoes, canteloupe, watermelons; began the apple picking; supplied the house with vegetables and fruits. N. B.—The frost hit and killed our tender crops on September 11, 1917.
ref: 1919, New York Legislative Documents: One Hundred and Forty-Second Session, 1919, volume 39, issues 105–110, page 60
text: Utica State Hospital Regular Dietary for Patients week ending June 1, 1919 [...] Breakfast: Cereal, milk, syrup, bread, butter, coffee, (toast, fried Hamburg steak). Dinner: Corned beef, gravy, potatoes, coffee, liberty cabbage, bread, [...]
ref: 1919, State of New York Handbook of the State Hospital Commission, page 186:
text: Sauerkraut was rechristened “liberty cabbage,” and hamburgers became “liberty sandwiches.” Libraries removed works of German literature from their shelves, and Theodore Roosevelt and others urged school districts to prohibit the teaching of the German language. Patriotic school boards burned the German books in their districts.
ref: 2007, John M. Murrin, Paul E. Johnson, James M. McPherson, Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People, Since 1863, page 858:
text: Sauerkraut became liberty cabbage; frankfurters became liberty sausage. (Could the creative members of Congress who coined the term freedom fries in a spasm of anti-French sentiment in 2002 have known of this earlier linguistic inventiveness?) German faculty members were fired from universities. German musicians were fired from orchestras.
ref: 2008, Daniel A. Farber, Security versus liberty, page 32:
qualifier: nationalist
glosses: Sauerkraut.
Coordinate terms: freedom bread
freedom fries
freedom toast
Related terms: liberty sandwich
liberty sausage
liberty steak
Canadiano
Texas strip