Cabbage

Cabbages are sturdy, unglamorous vegetables. They are usually destined to become the kinds of dishes cooked by grandmothers rather than haute cuisine chefs. They can be as big as a basketball, with a petticoat of capacious outer leaves.  The inner leaves hug the head, each one ending in a delicate ruffle, fancy as the lacy edges of Marie Antoinette's gowns. The rippled, ruffly finish that we can achieve with a serger is known as a "lettuce edge" but I propose that it should actually be called a "cabbage edge."