Kaldolmar

KALDOLMAR

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

My husband observed the other day that I have been sticking to mostly “safe” recipes from the antique cookbooks. Fair enough, I definitely did start out by picking recipes with which I am at least a little familiar.

So, I ventured into The Scandinavian Cookbook. I cannot lie: I feel a little fear when I page through this book, resplendent with recipes for aspic and fish pudding…

However, here is a recipe out of my normal sphere of reference, but still appetizing:

Kaldolmar/Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

1 head cabbage

1 lb ground veal (I used ground pork because the grocery store didn’t have veal)

1 lb ground beef

1 ¼ C milk

2/3 C dry bread crumbs

4 tsp grated onion

2 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

Discard wilted outer cabbage leaves. Halve cabbage head and remove core. Put cabbage in sauce pot and cover with salted water. Cover and simmer about 5 minutes or until leaves are softened. Drain cabbage and carefully separate leaves. Definitely be careful with this one! The cabbage leaves were very hot, and the outer thin ones were softened that they were easy to rip. I would recommend boiling the cabbage for a few minutes, draining and removing the outer leaves, then re-boiling the cabbage to continue to soften the thicker inner leaves.

Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Drop a small amount (no more than ¼ C) of the meat mixture onto a leaf. Roll each leaf, tucking the ends in toward the center. Fasten securely with toothpicks or string. Rolling these was a lot more difficult than I expected, and it definitely took a little practice. This is the point at which I realized that 1 head of cabbage is not enough leaves for the meat mixture suggested in the original recipe, and also that the inner leaves needed to be boiled longer before they would fold easily.

 

Fill the sauce pot with salted water and bring to a boil. Add the cabbage rolls carefully. Once all the rolls are in the pot, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove toothpicks or string.

Gravy

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp cardamom
2 C milk

Melt butter in pan. Stir in flour, salt, and cardamom. Heat until mixture bubbles. Gradually add milk while stirring. Return to boiling until mixture thickens.

 

So, I might have been a little nervous, but this recipe turned out okay. My cabbage rolls didn’t explode like I was worried they might. These were warm and filling, satisfying the way a Nordic dinner should be. Unfortunately, like I have noticed with a lot of these antique recipes, this recipe is missing seasoning. Both the meat mixture and the gravy taste very bland. I would recommend upping the salt content a little. But, if you’re adverse to adding salt, try upping the cardamom and nutmeg – maybe even add some allspice?

Like I said, the meat mixture in this recipe makes too much for one head of cabbage. I used up my extra meat mixture by putting it in my Stuffed Tomatoes. But, you could also mend this situation by using a second head of cabbage.

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!