Cabbage roll
Cabbage leaves are stuffed with the filling which are then baked, simmered, or steamed in a covered pot and generally eaten warm, often accompanied with a sauce.
It is usually served with a side dish of yogurt and a type of lemon and olive oil vinaigrette seasoned with garlic and dried mint.
The cabbage roll is a staple in the Romanian cuisine with variations of the recipe and sizing depending on the region, typically taking up to 6 hours to cook.
Traditionally made with pork, beef, bacon, rice, spices and aromatics, the cabbage rolls are broiled in a tomato sauce and served with polenta, sour cream and spicy pickled peppers.
Cooking textbook author Nancy Krcek stated that the origins are unclear and that it is possible multiple groups of people invented it at the same time.
[1] Another cooking book author Malgorzata Caprari stated it is believed that credit is owed to the poorer inhabitants of Central and Eastern European countries.
[3] Recipes vary depending on region; northern Poles prefer a savory sauce, while Galicia, Hungary and Ukraine favor sweet-and-sour, for example.
Cabbage rolls are called Pasuts tolma (պասուց տոլմա) (Lenten dolma) in Armenian where they are of seven different grains – chickpea, bean, lentil, cracked wheat, pea, rice and maize.
[11] Cabbage rolls are a culinary standard in Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Romania.
They are traditionally made with leaves of brined cabbage stuffed with ground beef, pork and rice, while meat can also be omitted or substituted with crushed walnuts, pine nuts and raisins.
The sour stuffed cabbage is part of the traditional Hungarian pig slaughter menu and it is said that eating this during the holiday season will bring you wealth and health for the new year.
The 17th-century manuscript cookbook of the Csáktornya court, written sometime before 1662, begins its list of dishes with the phrase "The cabbage meat is the coat of arms of Hungary".
Kelemen Mikes when traveling to Turkey also writes back, "The beautifully written letter pleases the mind, as does these cabbages with dill and sour cream".
The cabbage rolls are called gołąbki in Polish, holubky by Czechs and Slovaks, or sarma / сарма by Serbs, Croatians and Bulgarians.
In a less popular version called leniwe gołąbki (lazy cabbage rolls) the ingredients are chopped, combined and baked or fried.
For Sviata Vecheria (Christmas Eve Supper) in many regions of Ukraine holubtsi constitute one of the twelve traditional dishes served on the night.
Carpathian-style holubtsi are usually made from fresh cabbage and stuffed with corn grits, or with grated raw potato (Vorokhta, Verkhovyna, Kvasy).
A classic Halychian (Galician) Sviata Vecheria dish is holubtsi stuffed with grated potato and served with a mushroom machanka (dipping sauce).
On May 4, 2023, the cooking of holubtsi, a Ukrainian traditional dish, was inscribed in the National Inventory of Elements of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine.
In 1709, after losing the Battle of Poltava, the wounded Charles XII of Sweden and the remnants of his army escaped with their Cossack allies to the Ottoman town of Bender, in present-day Moldavia, where they were granted refuge by Sultan Ahmed III.
[21] The celebrations have also been supported by a number of important civil society organizations over the years, notably the Church of Sweden and the Federation of Local History and Folk Culture (Sveriges hembygdsförbund).
The most common filling is a mixture of rice, onion, tomato, herbs, and spices (most typically including mint, dill, and cumin); meat is rarely used in Egyptian stuffed cabbage.
Romani people in the United States eat sarmi which is made with cabbage leaves stuffed with pork, onions, peppers, rice, and tomatoes.
