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Stuffed Cabbage
Choose a good-sized firm young cabbage. Wash it thoroughly, and lay it in water to which has been added 1 tablespoonful of vinegar. Let it remain for half an hour, then drain it, cut off the stalk, and scoop out the heart, so as to make a space for the stuffing, which may be made of sausage-meat, mixed with chestnuts cut small, or any flavoring that may be preferred. Press the force-meat into the cabbage, cover it with leaves, which must be well tied on with tape to prevent escape. Place the cabbage in a saucepan with some slices of bacon above and below it, and cover the whole with nicely flavored stock. Let it stew gently for half an hour. Take out the cabbage, remove the tape, place it on a hot dish, and strain the gravy over it. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A whole cabbage hollowed out, packed with forcemeat and braised in stock — a French chou farci in English dress. The only real difficulty is getting the stuffing cooked through without the cabbage collapsing.
- The half-hour is too shortA fist-sized ball of raw sausage-meat buried inside a dense cabbage will not reach 165F/74C in thirty minutes of gentle stewing. Allow 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a bare simmer, or braise covered at 325F, and check the centre of the stuffing with a probe before serving.
- Forcemeat"Force-meat" is simply the stuffing mixture. Bulk sausage-meat works as written; loosen it with a beaten egg and a handful of breadcrumbs or cooked rice so it does not set into a solid rubbery mass during the long braise.
- ChestnutsPeeled vacuum-packed or jarred chestnuts are the practical option, roughly chopped. Sweetened chestnut purée is not a substitute.
- The vinegar soakSoaking greens in salted or vinegared water was a standard way of drawing insects and grit out from between the leaves, which is very likely what is intended here, and it still does that job. Half an hour in cool water with a tablespoon of vinegar is enough; longer and the outer leaves go limp and tear when you tie them.
- TapeCotton tape or kitchen string, wound round the cabbage in both directions like a parcel. Cheesecloth wrapped round the whole head and tied is easier to remove and holds a heavy stuffing better.
- Bacon above and belowThe slices keep the cabbage off the pan base and baste it as they render. Use unsmoked streaky or pancetta if you want the stock to taste of cabbage rather than smoke.
- Stock"Nicely flavored stock" means well-seasoned chicken or beef stock; the recipe says to cover the whole cabbage with it, so use enough to submerge the head along with the bacon.
- ServingThree or four persons, as the recipe has it. Cut it into wedges at the table so each portion carries stuffing, and reduce the strained cooking liquid by half before pouring it over — it will be thin and cabbage-sweet straight from the pan.
Stuffed whole cabbage belongs to a thrifty European tradition in which one cheap vegetable is made to carry a small quantity of meat and be served as a joint. French cookery knows it as chou farci, and the version here — sausage-meat with chestnuts, bacon above and below, braised in stock and served with the strained cooking liquor as gravy — is close to French practice, which is why it reads more like a braise than plainly boiled and buttered cabbage. The pairing of pork and chestnuts is itself seasonal logic: both were autumn and early-winter goods, and cabbage was the vegetable still standing in the garden when little else was.