I love craftyrn's golobki recipe and it is my "go to" anytime I get a craving. It has the perfect balance of savory sweet and tart for my taste. I do often use 1/2 pork and 1/2 beef since finding ground veal can be difficult.

Alexa

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DianeâÂÂs GOLABKI (craftyrn)
a 3 # head of cabbage
ý # ground beef
ü # ground pork
ü # ground veal
1 ý C cooked long grain rice
1 small onion, chopped
1 egg, beaten
salt & pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp ground horseradish
1 C condensed tomato soup
2 T brown sugar
1 T vinegar
1 C beef broth
Remove the core from the cabbage, place cored end down in large pot with an inch or two of water & steam for 15-20 min. (Mom used to freeze the whole head the night before she made these--then cabbage leaves are just as pliable as steamed). Remove the head of cabbage and CAREFULLY peel down leaves by placing the cored end up and doing one leaf at a time.
Mix ground meats, egg, onion, rice, salt, pepper, garlic and horseradish. Scoop out about 1/2 C of mixture and GENTLY pat into an oval. Place the oval on thickest part of cabbage leaf and roll once. Then tuck edges over the rolled part & continue to roll.
Place all rolls into heavy pan that is lined with a few cabbage leaves, layering rolls as needed.
Mix undiluted soup, beef broth, brown sugar & vinegar and pour over rolls. Cover and bake in 350ð oven for 2 -2 1/2 hrs.
(I've often used left over spaghetti sauce diluted with a little beef broth. Also can be made in casserole form. Just layer steamed cabbage leaves with a layer of meat and rice mixture, another layer of cabbage leaves. Pour sauce over all and bake.)

Here's my recipe for stuffed cabbage. haven't made it in years!
Stuffed Cabbage
Separate leaves on a large head of cabbage by putting it in a large pot of boiling water. Turn off the pot and let stand for 10 minutes. Peel back the leaves carefully being careful not to tear them. Lay the leaves flat on a damp towel and fill one at a time, with the following mixture:
2pounds of lean ground beef (raw)
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. uncooked rice
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed...pepper to taste

Mix the meat and other stuff together, and divide between 20 to 25 of the cabbage leaves, rolling and folding so as to enclose the meat mixture. Fasten with a tooth pick if necessary.
Place in a large Dutch oven, alternate layers of the cabbage rolls and the following:
The shredded center portion of the cabbage, 1 large onion sliced, chopped celery, two stalks, and 1 grated carrot and a 1 pound 10 oz can of whole tomatoes. Add 1/2 a small can of tomato paste, water to almost cover the rolls, 1/2 to 3/4 c. of brown sugar I like 3/4 cup) and the juice of 1 lemon. spread some catsup over the top and top with extra cabbage leaves. Cover the pot and bake at 325 for at least 4 hours. Watch to see that it doesn't boil dry and add a little more water if needed.
Makes about 20 to 25 rolls.

I don't have an exact recipe, but I use a mix of 1/2 ground pork and 1/2 ground lamb and I cook the rice about 1/2 way, so it's still kind of "al dente", about even ratio of meat to rice. Salt, pepper and garlic powder (yes, I know... I use fresh garlic in the sauce... I like the way the flavors meld together with the powder in the meat mixture) to your preference.

I find that fillings that are too meat-heavy are drier than I like.

My mom used to make it with pork and veal... she said that veal used to be cheaper than chicken. But I prefer the slightly stronger taste of lamb.

Ann

I like pork or pork and beef in stuffed cabbage, but my recipe came from a college friend's mother....good Jewish cook.
She would bring her mom's cabbage rolls back to school after break. No pork and no mixing meat.....but I do sometimes mix pork and beef in the recipe, just don;t tell!!

In my Hungarian family, most use all ground pork or a mix of gr. pork and gr. beef.

I don't think I'd like it as much with 100% ground beef.

I also use both pork and beef. I was just wondering if you had any special spices or such that you use. But I will be looking at all the post. Maybe I will just combine a few different things and see what happens :)

My recipe comes from my German grandmother

She used ground beef only, onion, uncooked rice, and salt and pepper. She used a lot of tomato juice which she added all the time they were cooking, and a long cooking time because of the uncooked rice. The rice absorbed the juice for better flavor

Her secret though was sour kraut. She put a layer of it between the layers of Cabbage rolls. We always had them for Christmas eve after midnight mass. She would make them early and freeze them. Then she'd bring them up and they would go in the pressure cooker for a while with kielbasa chunks

I've never tasted cabbage rolls as good as hers. Even mine following her recipe don't seem to taste as good.

My polish grandmother said it should be half beef and half veal. With veal unavailable the family morphed that into just hamburger. Whatever meat it is mixed with rice.

I'm a bit odd so I soak mine is soy sauce!... your ordinary polish/chinese cusine!

: )
lyra

I use Diane's recipe too...the one posted by Alexa for Polish style cabbage rolls but when I think of it (not often enough) I use my German GF's recipe. Quite different and very good.

Cabbage Rolls - Linda Subitz

1 Lb ground beef and ground pork mixture
2 Slice white bread into Broken small pieces
2 strips bacon cut in small pieces
1 onion
Chopped parsley thyme, salt & pepper to taste
1 Tbl AI or HP Sauce
2 cups beef broth (more if needed)
2 Tbl demiglace if you have it (if not use consomme instead of beef broth)
1/4 Cup water
Head of cabbage

Fry bacon pieces until they have rendered their fat but are not crisp. Add chopped onion and saute until limp. Combine bread pieces with ground meat and add onion bacon mixture. Add herbs and spices and steak sauce. Combine well.

Prepare sauce by combining beef broth, demi glace and water in a small sauce pan. Heat to blend.

Prepare cabbage and stuff as the others have described. Place the rolls in a roasting pan and cover with the beef broth and demi glace mix.

Bake covered, at 350 for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.~