Cabbage Rolls

Freeze the whole head of cabbage to wilt and avoid all the boiling mess. Also, no need to precook the meat! Just like stuffed peppers, slow cook for a few hours.

I've been making gołąbki (stuffed cabbage) since childhood. Never made them by cooking the meat first.

I learned to make cabbage rolls from a friend's elderly Hungarian aunt. The main difference was the meat and rice were uncooked when they got rolled into the cabbage leaves. Makes a world of difference in ease.

I'm so happy to see this recipe here! My Italian-immigrant grandmother learned to make these from an "American" woman neighbor with whom she traded recipes. She didn't cook the meat first, but filled the cabbage leaves with raw beef and rice, stacked them tightly in a heavy Dutch oven, filled the pot with the cabbage water up to about a half-inch from the top of the cabbage rolls, and let the whole thing simmer for hours. Interesting difference. Tomato sauce and parmesan cheese topped the dish.

I've been freezing the head of cabbage for years. The leaves separate easily from the head. Do cut the bottom cabbage core first before freezing. I also agree with Leslie, don't precook the meat. Either cook on the stove or in the oven. I place raisins in with the chopped tomatoes and tomato sauce and add a little sugar. Delicious!

I grew up making this and this recipe is way off. 1. You can do just ground beef (but meatloaf mix is traditional) 2. No egg 3. Sauerkraut ! (drained) 4. I do not use any canned or pasted tomatoes, I just cook them in V8 (that's my dad's secret) and you can adjust accordingly because V8 already has a ton of other flavors. 4. No other spices just minced garlic, meat. V8 and sauerkraut.

Easier and faster to remove leaves and thick stems and them blanche them all at once. In France we often add nutmeg to the meat mixture and probably tyme too.

My Polish mother used cans of tomato soup to cover her cabbage rolls. That processed sweetness is just right for my taste and keeps the dish simple. Thank you for publishing this and letting me relive delicious childhood memories!

As a Ukrainian descendent, cabbage rolls have been a mainstay throughout my life. I agree with other comments, precooking the meat is not necessary. I love to use sour cabbage instead of regular cabbage - it's far easier to roll and the flavor is unbeatable!

No rice paddies in Eastern Europe, so I always used barley. Don't need meat, either, just par -cookerd barley, onions and garlic. Add a little vinegar and some tumeric to the tomato sauce. A little flour/butter roux makes it super delicious.

Cabbage rolls exist in many cuisines, but the best is Romanian sarmale, because they use pickled cabbage, which adds a lot of complexity, and they serve it with a very spicy pepper and a rich cream (on top of polenta). Every time I see another cabbage roll recipe I feel the need to proselytize, so apologies for that.

My family tossed a few raisins in the tomato sauce for a slightly sweet/sour flavor. I will always freeze the cabbage to avoid boiling the leaves. A godsend tip.

My Slovak family (great aunts, etc) always added a little sour cream. The recipe in a favorite Slovak-American cookbook uses a half cup of “tomato soup” for the sauce and adds to that a half cup of sour cream. It was pure delicious comfort food.

My mother and grandmother were from Poland. You don't have to submerge the cabbage, you can steam it. I also partially core it first. I have never tried it, but I have heard from many people that freezing the cabbage works well. We also never browned the meat ahead of time - we rolled it into the cabbage leaves and cooked it in the sauce. I can see baking the dish, but in our family we always used a pressure cooker. Not saying our way is the only way, but people may want to consider it.

I love that cookbook! The First Slovak Catholic Ladies Association (est. in Northeastern Ohio) published that book and every Slovak family had it, including mine. I have my own copy of the cookbook. I'm told that my grandmother and great aunt contributed several recipes, but I don't know which ones.