Ethel bolling's cabbage cake

6 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 Head cabbage (medium-small)
1 pounds Fresh ground pork
1 cup Fine bread crumbs
1 Egg
2 tablespoons Butter
1½ tablespoon Flour
2 cups Drained cabbage-cake liquid (approximately)
Salt and pepper; to taste
¼ cup Milk
6 To 8 bacon slices
;Boiling water
1 Egg
1 tablespoon ;Cold water
Salt and pepper; to taste

Directions

EGG SAUCE

To make the cake, bring a large kettle of salted water to a boil. Core cabbage and remove all leaves one by one, dropping them into the boiling water. Boil about 5 minutes, until leaves are wilted and pliable. Drain leaves and allow them to cool enough that they can be handled.

Blend pork with bread crumbs, egg, salt, pepper and milk. It should look like a meatloaf mixture.

Line a heavy saucepan or pot with bacon slices, covering bottom and reaching up the sides as far as they will go. (The pan size will depend on the size of the cabbage; we used a pan that measured 7" across the bottom, 6" deep. The cabbage cake was only 2 or 3" deep in it, but you need the extra room for the liquid.) In the bacon-lined pot, layer in ⅓ of the cabbage, then half the pork mixture and so on, making 3 layers of cabbage and 2 of pork.

Place a plate and a weight on the cabbage. Set the pan on medium heat until you can hear the bacon sizzling for a minute or two, then pour boiling water over to cover the cabbage and put on a close-fitting lid. Reduce heat to below medium and cook for one hour.

Drain and save the liquid. Turn cake out onto a warm serving plate.

To make egg sauce, melt butter in a heavy saucepan. Stir in flour.

Gradually add reserved liquid; stir until thickened. Beat egg with the cold water. Stir half the sauce into the beaten egg-water.

Return all to saucepan and cook, not boiling, for a couple of minutes. Season and serve in a separate sauce boat.

Note: To double the recipe, make 2 cabbage cakes, using 2 pans instead of one large one.

Reader Bobby S. Phillips of Shelbyville, KY requested the recipe, saying that he and his wife had first tried this when they got married. In her 11/06/91"Cook's Corner" column in "The (Louisville, KY) Courier-Journal, Alice Colombo indicated that the recipe initially ran on 02/04/70. Pg. C10.

Posted by Cathy Harned.

Submitted By BARRY WEINSTEIN On 03-31-95

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