Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This is your basic recipe for stuffed cabbage that always brings me compliments. I bake this recipe in the oven rather than cooking it stove top. I line my pan with the larger cabbage leaves. I also cover the cabbage rolls wtih additional leaves. This way the actual cabbage rolls stay moist and don't get burned. I do parboil my cabbage, cutting a few leaves off at a time as they cook. I do add 1/2 to 3/4 cup tomato juice to the meat. This is something my Polish mother always did. I do make a different sauce. After all the work of making homemade stuffed cabbage rolls, I find it hard to pour tomato soup on top. For one pound of meat, I mix an 8oz. can of tomato sauce, 1 Tablespoon brown sugar, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce. I mix well and pour over cabbage rolls. Sometimes I double the sauce if I want a lot extra. I often serve these with noodles, so it is nice to have plenty of sauce to pour on the noodles.

Because I always read the hint to freeze the cabbage head and the leaves fall right off, I wanted to add my hint too. I have done both, freeze the cabbage head and boil the cabbage leaves. My advice is to ONLY freeze the cabbage leaves if you're short on time or you won't eat the cabbage leaves anyway. This is an old world recipe, a classic and you don't mess with the classics if you don't have to. By boiling the leaves, your cabbage rolls will turn out tender and edible. By freezing them, they tend to be rubbery and inedible. Just a warning to those who might not want to follow this recipe as directed. It might be a little disappointing to the texture of the finished cabbbage roll.

An easy way to separate the cabbage is to take off the outer leaves making it a manageable size. Bring a large pot of water to boil then putting the whole cabbage in the water. Watch how much water you have in the pot because the cabbage will raise the level quite a bit. Parboil for about 5 or 6 minutes, drain the water & place the cabbage in cold water to stop the cooking. The leaves come off very well and are pliable to work with. Hope this helps.

I'm quite certain this recipe would have been great exactly as written, but I did make a few changes to suit our taste. First of all, you can get your cabbage leaves to come apart perfectly by zapping the head of cabbage in the microwave for about 2-1/2 minutes at a time. Just score the core, and you will get full, perfect leaves without any tearing at all. No need to mess with boiling water. I did not cook the cabbage leaves at all, I just simmered the rolls longer in step 4. With the meatballs, I added an entire cup of rice, garlic powder and closer to 1/4 cup of the prepared sauce. I did not find any reason to secure the cabbage rolls with toothpicks or string; they stayed together just fine seam side down. Being out of tomato soup, I used tomato sauce, but more of it; 3 (8 oz.) cans plus 1/2 cup of water. I also upped the brown sugar and lemon juice to 2 Tbsp. each. I remember my grandma making these when I was a child, and she would always throw a handful of gingersnaps into her sauce, so I added 4-5 to mine for good measure. Simmered for about an hour, stirring and basting as directed. This was my first attempt at making these, and they were out of this world. Thanks for the post, Judy... I'll be sharing it with my cooking pals at ourtabletalk.com

This was my first time making stuffed cabbage and I must say, it exceeded my expectations! For starters, I boiled the whole cabbage head in salted water for 6 minutes and found it very easy to work with. Like others, I added garlic, 1 tbs. of worchestshire sauce, 1 tbs. of lemon juice and 1 tbs. of brown sugar to the meat mixture. I also added onion soup mix to the meat mixture, talk about great flavor. This will be a regular meal in our home, what a hit!!

very good! I added some garlic and basil for extra seasoning. I also used a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes instead of the tomato soup. It was my first time making cabbage rolls and they turned out great! thanks!

This recipe was good but I changed it a little. Instead of tomato soup I used a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of tomato sauce. We love more of a saucier version.

I made this for dinner tonight. It certainly was a hit. I did use spaghetti sauce instead of soup, and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 1 hour. Thanks for the recipe:)

I had only tried making stuffed cabbage once before, and it came out horrible. However this time, it was fantastic!! I followed some of the other reviews and added some tomato sauce. My 2.5 yr old and my hubby loved it. This is definetly a keeper!!

My Polish wife loved this recipe! I added more tomato sauce than called for and it turned out great.