For years now, my husband and I had a running joke about a small restaurant chain here in California called “Clearman’s North Woods Inn.” We’d never been there before and I’ve always wanted to go. Steve kept saying he’d take me and it just never happened. It became funny! This year, for our anniversary, guess where we went for dinner? :-)
North Woods Inn is one of those places where you can get a steak the size of your head, you throw peanut shells on the floor and the decor is something straight out of the early 40’s. The interior is full of dark wood, low lights and a dusty old stuffed bear in the lobby. Their marinated cabbage salad with blue cheese dressing however, is the stuff of legends!
A closely guarded secret, our waiter would say no more, other than there were a lot of ingredients and it took days to make. Hmmmm… Lucky for us, he did let one specific ingredient slip.
I was on my iPhone looking up recipes as soon as we were done eating. (Who is a foodie? Yeahhh…) None of the copy cat recipes mentioned the secret ingredient from our waiter. And trust me, there are a lot of copy cat recipes out there! Finally, we stumbled across a link to a recipe containing this mystery ingredient… BINGO!
I could hardly wait to get home, print the recipe and try it ourselves!
They say good things come to those who wait… and I waited four days for this salad!
Worth. Every. Minute.
The cabbage is tangy and sweet, all at the same time. It does take four days to marinade, so plan accordingly! Use red cabbage and a good quality olive oil for best results. Add the olive oil the last day because otherwise the oil protects the cabbage from the vinegar and will slow down the marinade process!
Here is what I found, straight from Jim in Montana, for the North Woods Inn Cabbage Salad Recipe!
Ingredients:
1 head red cabbage
3/4 cup red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
5 Tbsp sugar
3 tsp salt
1 tsp Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 and 1/2 tsp onion powder
1 extra large zip-lock bag
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Preparation:
Split the cabbage head in half. Cut out and remove the tough core of the cabbage — discard.
Slice the cabbage as thinly as possible. The slicing disc on your food processor will help. Go back through the sliced cabbage and cut the longer parts into smaller pieces — discard thick/white parts. Place cabbage in a large zip-lock bag. You can use a large bowl if needful, but is harder to marinate that way — and takes up fridge space.
Mix together all of the other ingredients, except the oil. Pour into the cabbage and mix it up – purge the bag of air and then smush the bag to get the vinegar mixture all through the cabbage.
Twice a day (or more often) — for the next several days — smush the bag around and get the marinade all over the cabbage. The red cabbage will soften quite a bit and the marinade will become deep purple. The flavors will meld over the next few days and the cabbage will soften and seem to shrink. Continue to purge air from the bag as the cabbage softens and the air pockets collapse.
The day you plan to serve the salad, add the olive oil and smush it around. Try to give it at least an hour or more before serving.
Serve in a small bowl at the table so the juice does not turn other items red. Use a slotted spoon to drain well — or use the colander. If using the colander, save the liquid and put the excess cabbage and the liquid back into the bag for another time.
We served this delicious salad on top of lettuce wedges, with blue cheese dressing!
If you have ever been to North Woods Inn, this is a very close version of their delicious salad. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Till next time!
I would like to know which makes the most authentic tasting slaw………. using red wind vinegar or apple cider? Which do you personally prefer?
Hi Barbara! Personally, I like the Red Wine Vinegar. Apple Cider can be a bit too harsh in this application.
I have to agree that using the red wine vinegar is best. It’s much more mellow than ACV, and delicate. I personally think the combo of the balsamic vinegar and the Lowry’s seasoning salt gives the closest end result to NWI’s red cabbage salad. It’s addictive!
I accidentally grated my cabbage instead of shredding it. Do you think it will be OK? It looks so tiny Maybe it will be OK but just marinate for less time? What are your thoughts?
Hi Yolanda! You should be fine with grated cabbage. Yes, marinate for a bit less. Try tasting it after 24 hours and see what you think. Good luck with it!
I love this recipe. I have a fido jar in the refrigerator with my marinated cabbage. I take out only what I plan on eating and dress it with olive oil. The rest of the cabbage keeps a very long time. The key really is adding olive oil to just enough slaw as you plan on eating.
Rose, that’s a great idea! Thank you for sharing it!
How long will the salad keep in the zip lock bag?? I can’t wait to try it!!
Hello Michon! The salad will keep (after you add the oil) for a few days! I wouldn’t let it go longer than about 3 -4 days. Enjoy!!
Would you clarify olive oil please? Pure olive oil or extra-virgin olive oil? They have very distinct flavor differences. Thank you so much! Love this recipe!
Hi! Excellent question! I use extra-virgin olive oil. Regular olive oil tends to be too heavy of a flavor for this recipe. Thank you for asking! I will clarify and update the recipe right now. Enjoy your salad! <3
We were just at NWI last night celebrating my nephew’s 30th birthday. Earlier in the day a friend of mine asked me to make my red cabbage salad for next weekends baby shower for her daughter and enough to feed 30 people. She loves my salad which was why she asked but it was a copy cat from the internet. However, I always knew something was off with the recipe vs. what we would devour at NWI. Discovering your recipe and especially with the process that I had never done before or even thought of, makes a lot of sense and I’m really looking forward to wowing everybody on Saturday with your version! Thank you!
Thank you for visiting my site! I can’t wait to hear how your salad turns out. It’s one of our favorites and I hope will become one of yours too!
I read your recipe a zillion times and never came across the”secret” ingredient so I guess it must still be secret.
I have been going to north woods on Rosemead since I was twelve, maybe earlier then the one in Azusa.. all birthdays were celebrated there and as I tried to recreate the recipe – before the Internet- I put pimentos in it as I was sure I saw those in the salad, however I’m not sure at what step to do it.
I also in my billion times there never saw their awesome blue cheese salad served over the coleslaw, just in a desperate bowl so you had to make the hard decision which to eat first
Hi Lynne! Isn’t North Woods delicious? We’ve always eaten the salads tossed together, but they don’t serve it that way! They serve it individually and we do the mixing. ;-) The “secret” is the balsamic vinegar. If you do a search for other recipes, they all have red wine vinegar listed twice. I’ve also heard that NWI adds a splash of Worcestershire sauce, but I haven’t tried that yet! Hmm…. maybe this weekend! Enjoy!
We went to NWI last night and, as always, I was trying to figure out the cabbage salad. I was thinking that, possibly, they parboiled the cabbage but you just gave me the answer with marinating. That had NEVER occurred to me! I also was noticing how the oil coated the cabbage but it didn’t taste too oily. An old family friend would make his copycat of the cabbage salad and brag about it but it wasn’t even close. Of course, we would complement him and agree that it was “Just like NWI”…We lied! I cannot wait to try your version.
Hi Pam! I hope you try this recipe. It takes time but it is *very* close to NWI version. Add the oil right at the end and you should be good! Please let me know what you think if you try it! Have a great day!
I made this 4 days ago and it came out great! Thanks for posting. I grew up eating this salad and it is pretty spot on.
That’s so great! Thank you for sharing! I love this salad so much and am glad you like it too!
Do I have to wait 4 days????
Hi Katy! It’s best if you wait. It softens the cabbage and makes it very nice!
Hello between this recipe and Jims I see the secret ingredient is balsamic vinegar. I made it and it’s amazing! You didn’t say what the waiter told you so I assumed it was the balsamic vinegar? Thanks for the tip!
My family and I were lucky enough to live close to Clearmans village in the north San Gabriel Valley, and had 3 choices of their restaurant concepts: NWI, Clearmans Galley (The Boat) and The Golden Cock, (yeah I know, but it was a verrry nice restaurant with football sized baked potatoes, no exaggeration). Since the mystery ingredient is still a mystery, I guessed either the “Lawrys” seasoning salt, a So Cal foundational food/recipe seasoning blend, or the Balsamic… If I had to I would bet on the Lawrys though…
Someone asked about the NWI Blue Cheese Dressing. This is the best I’ve found, although I prefer using white pepper instead of the Hungarian Paprika to keep the color white: from http://www.food.com/user/48388
Northwoods Inn Creamy Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dressing
Ingredients: Servings: 4-8
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup sour cream
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
Directions: Prep Time: 15 mins Total Time: 15 mins
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.
2 Blend until smooth.
3 Chill at least 3-4 hours to let flavors meld.
4 Best served tossed onto chopped iceberg lettuce.