---

I’m going to be the first to admit that this favourite comfort food isn’t the prettiest that you will ever see.

But what it lacks in looks, it more than makes up in taste and fortunately keeps very well in the refrigerator which was a godsend at university when the funds for the meal budget were running especially low. It was not uncommon to get enough meals to last a week out of this culinary exercise!

There are about as many variations on this as there are Hungarians and you can generally tell which side of the country one’s family comes from based on the presence or absence of tomatoes on top of the finished products.

The soil of the northern half of the country is not particularly well suited to growing tomatoes.

It is absolutely fantastic for growing cabbage, peppers, and grapes for one of the most prized sweet wines through history that kings and popes would pay a ransom to obtain a single bottle…Tokaji Aszú.

When I learned to make this dish (and it’s close cousin töltött paprika or Hungarian stuffed peppers), the only time you ever saw tomatoes on it was when a few had been set aside for my stepfather and those got doused in the red fruits of the vine which ought to tell you where the Hungarians in our family tree came from (the ones that didn’t live in Vienna, that is!).

Traditionally, the meat filling is made with a combination of veal, lamb, and pork.

I think the following phrase will let you imagine how often that happened on *THIS* student’s meagre budget…

Nem, nem, soha!

Magyar for “No, no, never!” often heard when the Treaty of Trianon is mentioned

Fortunately, I’ve found that decent quality ground beef has much the same taste as the real traditional mixture (there was a Hungarian restaurant in South Daytona Beach that served the real deal on the wooden plates, no less!) if I’m going the cheap route and a half-and-half mixture of ground beef and hot Italian sausage is what Nicholas and I tend to prefer.

What You’ll Need

Hungarian cuisine is often better the next day which is why it wasn’t uncommon that what you saw cooking today is not what you’d have that evening. The extra time gives the flavours time to mix more thoroughly so the idea of “leftovers being a bad thing” is often a completely foreign concept!

I typically fill two crock pots or a covered roaster/dutch oven with these ingredients with the expectation that most of it will be eaten in the days that come.

• A large head of cabbage
  • A really leafy cabbage is the best as it’ll give you a nice mix of dark green and lighter green leaves
• Two packages of fresh sauerkraut
  • Don’t use the canned stuff, you’re just going to be disappointed
• 3.5 – 4 pounds of meat
  • 80% lean or better ground beef
  • Hot Italian sausage if you want your stuffed cabbage to have a nice kick, mild or sweet if you don’t
• Uncooked rice
  • Only use real rice here, none of that Minute Rice or Uncle Ben’s stuff from a box! You’ll know you’ve made a mistake if you use those sorts of boxed instant rices because the rice will be a wretched mush! Bleeechhh!
  • I’ve found that Basmati works best as it’s a long-grain rice but Jasmine adds an interesting flavour
• *REAL* Hungarian Paprika
  • You want the real thing…none of that generic stuff or the Spanish rubbish will do!
  • The hottest paprikas are found at a grocer that imports directly from Hungary but those are rare
  • If you want a nice kick, go for the “Hot” paprika (a good hot paprika is brownish in colour)
  • If you’re not a spice hound, the “Sweet” will be a better choice (sweet is more of a red colour)
• Other seasonings as desired
  • I’ve found that Greek seasoning provides a nice blend of spices that can hold it’s own to complement the paprika

What you’re looking at in the picture was roughly $25-30 at today’s inflated prices. But considering it’ll make enough that I can live off for a week, that seems a much better deal than the initial sticker shock would make you believe!

Things To Do Before The Fun Really Begins

The vast majority of the time I’m using the crock pots so I’ll pull them out and spray them with some cooking spray to make cleanup a breeze.

Cover the bottom of the crock pots with the sauerkraut.

Start a pot of water to boiling and core the cabbage (the core makes a tasty snack!).

Set the cabbage into a pot of gently boiling water which will make removing the leaves you’re going to wrap the meat and rice mixture in much easier!

I usually let it go just long enough to gently pry the leaves off the cabbage which allows the leaf to have a decent texture but still be pliable enough to fold.

Whilst The Cabbage Is Taking It’s Bath…

Now is the time to really get your hands dirty!

In a big bowl, add a decent amount of uncooked rice and the paprika and other seasonings as desired. Be very generous with the paprika because your hands should end up being the same colour as the paprika you’re using!

I don’t measure the rice per se…after you do this a few times, you’ll know how much rice the amount of meat you’ve got is going to take!

Once your stuffing’s in the bowl, give it a right lovely mixing and don’t hold back on kneading the rice into the meat and spice mixture. You should end up with an even consistency of meat and rice and your hands and the mixture should be close to the colour of the paprika you used!

This is one time you can get your hands right dirty and no one will fuss at you!

Wrapping Time!

Ideally, the meat mixture will be done as the first leaves are ready to come off the cabbage. I have a pair of wooden tongs that I use to grip the base of the leaf near where the core was and just gently lift and the leaf should come off the head easily.

Often I’ll pull a couple of leaves, wrap the meat/rice mix in them, and put them on the sauerkraut bed and then I’m ready to pull some more leaves from the cabbage.

Don’t worry if the wrapping doesn’t look totally pretty…just make sure the leave completely wraps round the mixture that is in it.

Now This Is The Part That Truly Sucks (In A Good Way!)

Once all of the meat/rice mixture finds itself in the embrace of a cabbage leaf, all you have to do is fill the crock pot (or Dutch oven) to the top with water (that’s what’s going to cook the rice!), set it to “Low” and about 8-9 hours later, they’ll be done and ready to serve because whilst Hungarian cooking is truly better the following day, I’ve yet to have the willpower to wait that long when I’ve been smelling the stuffed cabbage cooking in that crock pot all day!

It is a great meal to set and forget if you’re heading off to a day of work…the smell of the cabbage when you come back home is well worth it!

If you’re doing the Dutch oven method, three hours at 350 degrees F will just about do it.

The serving is the easiest part of it…spoon out some sauerkraut and a cabbage or two and break the cabbage apart.

I’m going to warn you…it’s not going to be the prettiest plate of food you’ve ever seen. But the *TASTE* is more than beautiful enough to make up for that!

So What Do I Do With The Rest Of The Cabbage?!?

More often than not, I’ll still have about half of the head of cabbage after I’ve wrapped the meat/rice mixture.

The beauty of this dish is that you can use the rest of that cabbage with some lovely egg noodles (I prefer the wide noodles but medium will do) and now you’ve got káposztás tészta (cabbage and noodles) which is a nice way of alternating meals for not much more money! 🙂