No summer cookout is complete without a tray of stuffed cabbages! Tender cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, seasoned ground meats and a rich tomato sauce make this the perfect summer comfort food. Plus these freeze beautifully!
This dish, God this dish brings back so many childhood memories that I literally sat here for 30 minutes in a daze just remembering some of them. Like there was the time we were harvesting cabbages from our garden and we each got to pick a single plant that we were in charge of to take care of. Whoever grew the biggest cabbage won. The prize was Mom would cook our favorite dessert to go with her famous stuffed cabbages. That summer I ended up winning. This cabbage was so huge that I couldn’t lift it. I know I have a picture of me trying to hold it on my lap. I’ll dig it out to share the pic once my arm is better.
Then there are the countless memories where our kitchen was soooooooooooooo hot (we didn’t have AC growing up and we only had window fans) and Mom had 3 large canning pots on the stove with boiling water making hundreds of stuffed cabbages. I can still remember that hot cabbage smell and hot/wet air in the kitchen. Dad would use the tongs to pull out the leaves, put them in the colander and my Mom, sister and I would each trim the stems.
When Mom made stuffed cabbages it was never just a pan for dinner or just enough for a single meal. Oh no, not in my house. You made enough for dinner, leftovers, enough for company to take some home and enough for the freezer. Mom’s kitchen and cooking style are you cook in bulk and never, ever waste anything.
Now depending on where you grew up or even what your background is you either called these Stuffed Cabbages, Pigs in a Blanket or Halupkies. The only real ingredient difference I’ve found between these is the use of either all beef or the omittance of rice and usage of potatoes instead. Once I did go to a restaurant where they served brown gravy with them and I’m sorry but that’s just wrong. In my world, these are only ever to be served with a rich tomato sauce. Brown gravy is just weird. I mean you can’t mix ketchup with brown gravy. That’s just gross.
Yes… even though these have a rich tomato sauce on them I still use ketchup. Don’t judge…
Growing up in Pittsburgh most of the weddings I went to as a kid were ones where the families made the food. We were poor people and hiring a caterer was unheard of plus honestly, no one could match my Mama’s cooking. At these receptions, you had your mandatory staples – fried chicken, rigatoni, ham, potato or macaroni salad and stuffed cabbages. Mom always was asked to make her cabbages (along with cookies for the cookie tables).
Pittsburgh weddings “require” a cookie table at receptions. Oh sure there’s a cake, but there must also be 1-2 cookie tables with copious amounts of cookies.
But back to these cabbages…
These to me mean summer. Gardens are growing, families are having cookouts and kitchens are full of people making these. As I was saying earlier, there were at least 4 of us making these as it was a job. Often my Mom’s best friend (and neighbor) would come over and help us. Often they’d split the bounty and ingredients. Mom would make the rice, cabbage, and other stuff while Mrs. H. would bring the ground meat(s).
The meat mixture was all ground beef or a mixture of ground beef and pork. I tend to personally like the addition of the ground pork as it gives the dish a bit more richness to it however you can totally go with all ground beef if you wish.
And yes you can totally go with ground turkey/chicken but you may want to up the fat in it (add some ground dark meat) to the mix.
To make these, well they aren’t hard but they do take a little bit of time to make. Cabbage leaves, unlike lettuce leaves, you just can’t peel off of the head. They are hard and if you try to peel them off they’ll crack and or tear. You don’t want that. For these, you want luxurious full leaves. Now everyone has their favorite method to remove the leaves.
Some folks use the freezer method where you put the cabbage head in a brown paper bag and put it in the freezer. Then once it’s partially frozen you remove it and as it softens the leaves pull off. I personally don’t like that as I find freezing the leaves messes with the composition of the cabbage leaf. It makes it almost mushy and it’s integrity is compromised.
For mine, I go with the way Mama taught me. I core it and then boil the head. Oh sure it’s hot as hell but that’s why you use tongs to pull the leaves off and put them in a colander to drain. Once they drain they are just warm to the touch. Man up… you can do this!
Now this dish, if it was served as a meal always, ALWAYS was served with creamy mashed potatoes. Nothing I tell you beats cutting off a piece of this rich, tomato sauced glazed cabbage roll and swirling it in some creamy mashed potatoes. It truly is the PERFECT BITE!
And if that wasn’t enough you need a big fat piece of warm buttered bread to wipe your plate clean. Mmmm God that sounds sooooo good right now!
Now when Mom made hers she had a huge free-standing roaster oven that held I swear like a hundred of these at once. She would fill that thing up plus pans for the oven.
One thing to keep in mind when making these is that they will need to cook for a few hours for the cabbage to get super tender. You don’t want the cabbage to have firmness or bite. You want to be able to pretty much cut it with a fork.
Nowadays I make a big tray like this just for the two of us but half of them I freeze. To freeze, once baked and cooled I’ll put some tomato soup in a freezer pan, add the cooked (cooled) cabbages), top with some more soup and double wrap is plastic then foil. To cook later on, I just unwrap to remove the plastic wrap, re-cover with foil and stick the cold pan in the oven. Set the oven to 350F and bake for 30 minutes or until the center is hot.
PrintMom’s Classic Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
- Yield: 8-12 1x
No summer cookout is complete without a tray of stuffed cabbages! Tender cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, seasoned ground meats and a rich tomato sauce make this the perfect summer comfort food. Plus these freeze beautifully!
Ingredients
- 1 large size head cabbage (about 3–5 pounds)
- 1 lb ground beef (or 1 1/2 lbs if not using pork)
- 1/2 pound ground pork (omit if using all beef)
- 1 medium onion, chopped small
- 3 Tbl minced garlic
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 3/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp parsley flakes
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 Tbl tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups cooked, cooled white rice
- 3 10.75 ounce cans tomato soup (if using a deep dish pan with a 3” side use 4 cans)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F, rack in the center.
- Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water.
- Cover and cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. If the leaves do not pull off easily, return the cabbage to the pot to boil a minute or two more.
- When the leaves are cool enough, use a paring knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through.
- In a large bowl, add in the ground beef, pork, rice, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, eggs, ketchup, tomato paste, and parsley. Mix gently to combine. Add in 2/3rd of a can of tomato soup (almost 3/4 of a cup) and mix.
- In a large deep dish (4” at least) baking pan (or two 9×13” glass pans), spread out the remaining soup from the open can on the bottom of the pan. Open up a 2nd can and pour out 1/2 of it and spread out until the bottom of the pan in covered in a light coating.
- To stuff the leaves lay down a single large leaf with the cut edge facing you (where the stem was) and place about a 1/2 cup of the meat mixture in the lower third of the leave. If the leaf is huge add more, if smaller add less meat. Fold the sides of the leaf over the meat and roll the cabbage up (like rolling a burrito). Repeat until all of the leaves are stuffed. If you have extra meat just roll it up as meatballs and place it in the baking pan with the stuffed cabbage.
- Place a single layer of stuffed cabbages on the bottom of your pan. Add the remaining half of the 2nd can of tomato soup. If you have leaves that are too small to stuff or are badly torn, add them on top of the soup.
- Add the 2nd layer of stuffed cabbage (you must make sure you have a 1/2” gap at the top of your pan and stuffed cabbage. It cannot go over the top of the pan. Top with the remaining can of tomato soup and spread out evenly.
- Spray the underneath of a large piece of foil. Place foil side down on the pan and close tightly around the dish.
- Place the pan on a larger cookie sheet to catch any spillovers.
- Bake for 3 – 4 hours or until the cabbage is tender when pierced with a knife. (I start to check mine after 2 hours 45 minutes).
- Remove from the oven, uncover and allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
To freeze, once baked and cooled put some tomato soup in a freezer pan, add the cooked (cooled) cabbages), top with some more soup and double wrap in plastic then foil. Freeze for up to 3 months.
To cook later on, unwrap to remove the plastic wrap, re-cover with foil and stick the cold pan in the oven. Set the oven to 350F and bake for 30 minutes or until the center is hot.
I have yet to be able to make cabbage rolls like my mom’s. I grew up in Erie, PA and cabbage rolls are very well loved in this area! Mom’s holiday table had cabbage rolls, kieska, potato salad, 3 bean salad. It was a good buffet style menu because family would come and go. They were good times I didn’t fully appreciate at the time. Thank you for this recipe- I never got mom’s and I never helped her make them (my bad). The only thing I remember and a cousin confirmed was the addition of a tablespoon of cider vinegar to give a certain pizzazz.
This is almost identical to what I’ve been making all my life which I learned from my mother…..only changes are I don’t use ketchup and tomato paste but I do add just a bit of brown sugar to the tomato soup. In retrospect it probably doesn’t make much difference either way. One key point is that the author mentioned that the cabbage should be fork tender when done….agree….but watch your oven temp unless you’re using an electric roaster……when I’m making a smaller batch in the oven I find I have to watch it closely……the oven temp tends to be a bit quirky whereas I might have to add a bit of water.
Are you suppose to add water per each can of tomato soup? What I’m asking is do you make the tomato soup like you were just gonna have tomato soup or not?
I don’t add any water to the recipe (other than the water you boil the cabbage in). The soup is thick this it coats the cabbage. Even if your fan of soup says to add water, do not add it for this recipe. Mom never did do neither do I.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Man these took me right back to grandmas sunday dinner. Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Do you have an instant pot version of this recipe?
No, as there are some recipes that you can’t just rush the flavor on. Can you make it in it, of course, but in my honest opinion, you don’t get the same taste, depth of flavor in the recipe.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
I managed to overlook mine. Very dried out. Flavor was very good though!
Make sure you have enough sauce/liquid and a tight seal. It doesn’t hurt to check it from time to time to make sure aren’t drying them out.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Lori,
I also grew up in Pittsburgh – Homestead. Which part of Pittsburgh were you from?
Hi Dawn,
Oh ho cool! I grew up in South Park. I have friends that live in the homestead area.
Best Kitchen Wishes!
This was great fresh! Pulled it out of the freezer though and it was still frozen after 30 min at 350.
My Nana made “Halushka Soup” when I was growing up, and my mom had it when she was growing up too. My Nana would make the cabbage rolls and some would be served for dinner. The others cooled overnight and in the morning were chopped up. They were added to beef broth and the remaining tomato sauce from cooking (sometimes an extra tomato sauce can was added, depending on how much sauce was left from cooking). I used to request this for my birthday, when I came back home on break from college, and special occasions. I’ve developed an onion allergy, so we’ve had to modify the recipe a bit (replaced onion with canned green chiles, works surprisingly well).
I think I want Halushka Soup now, time to dig out the recipe!
The best recipe for stuffed cabbage. I never needed toothpicks to hold the stuffed cabbage together. Husband loved the recipe and is still talking about it a week later. Don’t change a thing for this recipe. Thank you.
★★★★★
Awesomeness!!! Tastes like my grandmothers!!
★★★★★
I find it so fascinating that stuffed cabbage rolls are a summer food to you — we always had them in winter as a winter comfort food! I guess summer makes a little more sense with fresh cabbage, but with all the beef inside, it definitely screams winter to me. I love how the same food can be interpreted so differently between families.
I’ve been wanting to try this version. Growing up in Indonesia, we have quite a similar cabbage rolls which we enjoy with peanut sauce. And now I’m adding this to my must-make list.
★★★★★
Just recently I had a conversation with my mom about cabbage rolls that her mom – my grandma – used to make when I was a girl. My mom wasn’t sure if she ever got the recipe from her, but reading through your recipe, I think it must have been similar. I can’t wait to try these and share them with my mom to see if they match up to what we remember. Thank you so much for sharing!
I have not had cabbage rolls in a long time! I’m saving this recipe for the fall and going to give it a try.
★★★★★
As a kid I probably would have turned up my nose at these, but as an adult I’ll take two helpings! The filling in this recipe sounds delicious yet simple to make. Can’t wait to try!
Wow! These cabbage rolls look amazing! Now I’m craving them hard core. I am putting this recipe on my list to make this week.
★★★★★
I have never made cabbage rolls before, believe it or not, and yet they are one of my husbands favourite dishes! I do lasagna with cabbage leaves but have never made these. I’ve pinned this recipe for next week! My husband is going to be so excited!
★★★★★
These look amazing! I have great memories of my grandma making this dish for when we would visit. I can’t wait to try this recipe and re-live the memories!
There really is nothing like recipes from Mom! Can you believe I’ve never had these? Apparently they’re a comfort food classic, and I’m missing out!!
Thank you for sharing those wonderful childhood memories. I grew up in an Italian family, however we had a lot of Ukrainian friends and I exactly know about making lots of cabbage rolls. My mom and her friends made hundreds and shared them with friends and into the freezer they went. I love the texture and taste of the cabbage and filling paired with that rich tomato sauce. However when you described swirling the stuffed cabbage in those delectable mashed creamy potatoes i was taken over the edge of indulgence! Lol.
Great post!
Loreto
These look so amazing! I’ve never had stuffed cabbage before so I’ll have to try it out! Thank you!
★★★★★