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Stuffed Cabbage (One that is large but not too)
One that is large, but not too hard, is best for the purpose, and to have it at its best it should be a little loose in the center. To prepare this dish, trim off the root and any withered leaves on the outside, and with a sharp-pointed knife cut out the hard heart and interior, and, after washing it well, plunge it into three quarts of boiling water, in which a tablespoonful of salt has been dissolved. When it has boiled ten minutes, plunge it into cold water, and when drained off, it is ready to stuff. Season the inside with a little salt and white pepper, being careful not to break any of the outer leaves in so doing. Nice home-made sausage meat makes a good stuffing, and another, which may be made of a pound of lean veal minced, two ounces of salt larding pork, a tablespoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of butter and a pinch of thyme. When this is ready, put it in the heart of the cabbage and cross over the bottom two bands of cotton cloth, wide enough to cover the opening where the heart was removed, and let the cabbage stew for two or three hours. A pint of nice stock should be poured over the cabbage, and a few slices of carrots and onions to lie around in the gravy. Baste every fifteen minutes and when nicely done, the gravy can be thickened, seasoned with pepper and salt, and strewn around the dish, when it is ready for serving.
A braised whole stuffed cabbage, written for a coal range and a cook who trussed things with strips of old sheeting. The method holds up; a few of the quantities need a second look.
- The hinge: blanch, then shockThe ten-minute boil softens the leaves enough to hollow and stuff without tearing, and the cold-water plunge stops the outer leaves cooking further. Skip the cold water and the outside overcooks to mush long before the filling is done.
- Choosing the head"Large but not too hard" and "loose in the center" points away from a dense winter Dutch head and towards something looser-leaved, such as a Savoy or an early green cabbage. The recipe gives no weight; a head of two to three pounds is a reasonable reading of "large." A tight supermarket cabbage will fight the knife and hold less stuffing.
- The salt in the stuffing is too muchA tablespoon of salt to one pound of veal plus salt pork is about three times what a modern palate wants. Use a scant teaspoon, and remember the larding pork is already salted.
- "Half a teaspoonful of butter"Possibly a misprint, since half a teaspoon does very little in a pound of forcemeat, though the text gives no way to know. In practice the two ounces of salt pork, finely minced, supply the fat the mixture needs.
- Salt larding porkSalt pork or fatback, the fat once cut into strips for larding lean meat. Unsmoked; bacon will push the dish in a different direction. Mince it fine so it renders into the veal rather than sitting in lumps.
- Bands of cotton clothCut a square of cheesecloth or muslin, lay it over the opening, and tie the whole head in a cradle of kitchen twine, or wrap it in cheesecloth entirely. The point is to keep the stuffing in and the head in one piece while it braises.
- Vessel and heatA lidded Dutch oven just large enough to hold the cabbage. A pint of stock is 2 cups, which will not cover it, so this is a braise: cover and hold at a bare simmer, on the stovetop or in a low oven. Basting every fifteen minutes means lifting the lid, so expect to top up the stock.
- TimeTwo to three hours suits the loose, coarse cabbages of the period. A modern head with a veal stuffing is done in about 1.5 hours, when a skewer slides through the center and the filling reaches 160F.
- Yield and servingServes four to six. Lift the whole head onto a platter, cut the twine, and bring it to the table uncut in wedges; strain the braising liquid, thicken it lightly with a flour-and-butter roux or a reduction, and pour it around rather than over.
Whole stuffed cabbage is the chou farci of French provincial cooking, and this version — blanch, hollow, fill with a veal-and-pork forcemeat, braise in stock with carrot and onion — follows that pattern closely. Through the nineteenth century a braised stuffed cabbage was often said to be standard company for partridge, pheasant and hare, on the sensible grounds that lean wild meat wants fat pork and a long moist braise. The instruction to use "nice home-made sausage meat" as an alternative stuffing is a reminder of how recently that was an assumption rather than a suggestion.