Nana’s Stuffed Cabbage
- Total Time
- 3½ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1head of cabbage
- ¾pound ground beef
- 2tablespoons uncooked rice
- 2onions, 1 grated and 1 sliced
- 1½teaspoons ketchup
- 1egg
- Salt
- pepper to taste
- 1large can tomatoes
- 1large can tomato soup (or sauce)
- ½cup brown sugar
- Lemon juice to taste
- About 6 ginger snaps
- Noodles
- Butter
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Preparation
- Step 1
Boil cabbage in water about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and cool.
- Step 2
In a bowl, mix the ground beef, rice, grated onion, ketchup and egg, and season with salt and pepper.
- Step 3
In another bowl, combine canned tomatoes, tomato soup, brown sugar and lemon juice.
- Step 4
Separate cabbage leaves and roll about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the beef mixture into each leaf, tucking in the sides. If you have leftover beef, roll it into tiny meatballs.
- Step 5
Pour some of the tomato mixture into a deep pot. Crumble a handful of ginger snaps into it, then cover with a layer of rolled cabbage leaves (and tiny meatballs, if you have any), then one layer of sliced onion rings. Repeat until all cabbage rolls are used.
- Step 6
Cook on low heat, covered, about 2½ hours. When nearly finished, prepare buttered noodles, and serve with stuffed cabbage.
- To get a second meal out of this, put a piece of chuck roast in the bottom of the pot, on top of the first layer of sauce and below the first layer of rolled cabbage.
Private Notes
Comments
This is fairly close to the version my mom made. The origin is east European Jewish, probably the pale region. I make it now with ground turkey. The key is to make the sauce nice and gingery, with plenty of ginger snaps, and not too sweet. Taste and adjust until you get the right balance.Use tomato sauce, not juice. add plenty of raisins—Golden rare best, but red are fine. instead of boiling the cabbage, put it in the freezer a few days ahead, then thaw it. The leaves will peel easily.
This is fairly close to the version my mom made. The origin is east European Jewish, probably the pale region. I make it now with ground turkey. The key is to make the sauce nice and gingery, with plenty of ginger snaps, and not too sweet. Taste and adjust until you get the right balance.Use tomato sauce, not juice. add plenty of raisins—Golden rare best, but red are fine. instead of boiling the cabbage, put it in the freezer a few days ahead, then thaw it. The leaves will peel easily.
Did I miss the provenance of this version? Czech? German? Long Islandish?
My mother made this same dish but added sauerkraut, lemon juice and sometimes sour salt to the sauce, along with the sugar, tomato sauce, and onions. No ginger sbaps. Her family came from one party of Eastern Europe. My mother in law's family was from Hungary, and her stuffed cabbage was savory, with no sugar, still dekicious
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