No. 2705

Cabbage in Ballotines—Stuffed

Choux Farcis en Ballotines

Cut each of two clean cabbages in half, plunge them into boiling salted water and boil for fifteen minutes; then drain, refresh and press out all the water. Dampen some pieces of linen six by five inches; lay over each a thin slice of fat pork four by three inches, and on this spread a blanched cabbage leaf, mincing the heart-leaves up finely. Fry in lard four ounces of finely chopped onion, and one pound of chopped mushrooms; when the moisture has been evaporated from the latter add the minced cabbage, season with salt and pepper, then add half a pound of cooked sausage meat, and half a pound of boiled rice; thicken this preparation with a few raw egg-yolks and range it in the center of the spread-out leaves; roll each one in the shape of a sausage, then in the bards of fat pork, and lastly in the linen; tie both ends the same as a boned turkey. Lay them in a sautoir, cover with more slices of fat pork, and pour in some unskimmed broth (No. 194a), then let cook for two hours; free the stock from fat, strain it through a sieve and reduce it with as much espagnole sauce (No. 414). Unwrap the ballotines, remove the pork and dress them in the center of a dish, covering over with a third part of the sauce, and serving the remainder in a sauce-boat.

← No. 2704 Brussels Sprouts Sauted Cabbages & Greens No. 2706 Cabbage, Peasant Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer builds these as small boned-and-tied roasts rather than as loose cabbage rolls: filling, leaf, sheet of pork fat, cloth, string. The wrapping is the whole point, since it holds the shape through a two-hour braise and bastes the parcel from the outside in.

The hinge: wrap in three layers, in orderFilling goes on the blanched leaf, the leaf rolls into a sausage, that rolls in the pork bard, and the cloth goes on last and is tied at both ends, in Ranhofer's words "the same as a boned turkey." Skip the cloth and the parcels loosen and shed filling into the braise.
Linen and clothDamp unbleached muslin or a double layer of cheesecloth does the job; cut pieces roughly 6 by 5 inches as directed and tie with butcher's twine. Do not use anything treated or dyed, and rinse new cloth first.
Bards of fat porkThese are thin sheets of fatback, fresh or lightly salted, about 4 by 3 inches, sliced by a butcher or cut from a slab. Caul fat or thinly sliced unsmoked streaky pork will substitute; if the fat is heavily salted, blanch it two minutes and pat dry so the sauce does not turn briny.
Sautoir and unskimmed brothA sautoir is a straight-sided shallow pan with a lid; a wide braiser or Dutch oven is the equivalent. "Unskimmed broth" (Ranhofer's No. 194a) simply means a rich stock with its fat left on, which floats above the parcels and keeps them moist. Use good chicken or veal stock and let the fat stand.
EspagnoleRanhofer's No. 414 is a long-cooked brown sauce built on roux and brown stock. A jarred or homemade demi-glace, loosened slightly, gives the same result: reduce the strained braising liquid, then combine with an equal volume of the brown sauce.
The mushroomsA pound of chopped mushrooms throws a great deal of liquid. Cook them hard in a wide pan until the pan is dry and they begin to colour before the cabbage goes in, or the filling will be too wet for the yolks to bind.
Egg yolks as binder"A few raw egg-yolks" is unquantified; two or three would be a reasonable reading for this quantity. Stir them into the filling only once it has cooled below scalding so they thicken rather than scramble. They set during the braise.
TimingTwo hours at a bare simmer is generous but not wrong, since the fat and cloth prevent drying. The original cooks on the stove and gives no oven; if you prefer the oven, a moderate one in a covered pan for about ninety minutes will do for modest parcels. The filling is already cooked, so you are only setting it and softening the leaves.
YieldTwo cabbages and the filling as given should make something on the order of six to eight ballotines, though the recipe gives no count. Unwrap, discard the pork bards, and slice thickly to show the cross-section.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the vast compendium he assembled from three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it shows his habit of taking a peasant dish and putting it in professional dress. Stuffed cabbage in one form or another is common to most of Europe, but ballotine is a butcher's and saucier's word: a boned piece of meat rolled, wrapped, tied at both ends and poached in stock, and Ranhofer explicitly tells the cook to tie these "the same as a boned turkey." The name is generally traced to the same root as balle, a bundle. What marks the recipe as of its moment is the assumption that the kitchen already has espagnole standing by, unskimmed broth from No. 194a on the stove, sheets of barding fat cut and waiting, and clean linen to spare — the surrounding pages of the book are what make a single dish like this feasible in an hour of service.