Saturday night found us in church with the aroma of cabbage rolls wafting up from the hall below. The ladies (and maybe even a few gentlemen) were making the cabbage rolls for the upcoming Christmas Bazaar. This got my husband to thinking that I should be making some rolls soon but never in all my years have I found a fool proof method of getting nice pliable cabbage leaves for my cabbage rolls. Some say: boil the stuffing out of the leaves, freeze the cabbage, boil it whole, rip off leaves one at a time and then boil them, use really green cabbage, use savoy cabbage, and on and on. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated and seriously considered. I'm ok with my filling and my cooking method but those darn leaves are a challenge.

I love cabbage rolls. I buy the nicest, larges cabbage I can find. Peel off only the dirty outer leaves. Dunk the whole cabbage into rapidly boiling water for about a minute. Let it cool so you can handle it. Turn it core side up and carefully remove the core. Then peel the outer leaves away. Take the individual leaves and dunk them back into the pot of boiling water until they look limp. I do mine one at a time.
Remove with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel, cut out any hard woody veins, Stuff with about 3 Tbsp. stuffing and roll from the core side. ( I secure with toothpicks only if they are falling apart.) Place the seam side down in baking dish.

I do mine he same way as shequilts.

I just made 106 of them! I make a years worth at a time. I buy large heads of cabbage. Make sure they are not split. I make up my filling before I start the cabbage. Remove outter leaves. Using a heavy blade knife, I cut around the core & remove it. I then place it in a large pot of boiling water, core end up. The head needs to be completely under the water. It takes a few to several minutes for the leaves to get soft enough to remove. I use tongs to pull the leaves off as they soften. I lay them on a large platter to cool a few minutes. As the leaves soften & start to turn translucent I keep pulling them off. If I need to cut more core out I remove the head from the water(I use a 2 prong meat fork in the core), let the water drain out, set it on cutting board, cut it & put it back in. I use as many leaves as I can, even down to the tiny ones. I make baby sized rolls :). Hate waste. While I wait for leaves to soften in the water I stuff the ones I already took off. Place leaf with stem end towards you. Place your filling in. Fold the sides in (right, then left), then fold the leaf end, then the stem end. Your filling should not squish out. They don't need toothpicks to hold them shut if you fold this way. After I have them all made I divide them up into portions for meals, place them in a plastic bag & freeze them. After 24 hours in the freezer I then put the packages in a paper bag. Paper bags help keep things from getting freezer burn. They'll keep for a full year this way. When you remove them from the freezer let them set at room temp for abut 30 minutes. They'll break apart easy, with no damage. Been doing them this way for over 40 years now.

sounds so good ladies...my mom use to make these when i was a kid...i think i will give it a go...thank you for the tips

I also do my leaves the same as shequilts although I don't do the each leaf individually. I put them all back into the big pot and boil for a few minutes until pliable but not mushy. Great, now I have a urge for these and will have to make them soon.

I made a big batch of cabbage rolls yesterday, boy were they good. I've got enough for the freezer too. I don't mind making them if it wasn't for the cabbage leaves. That is thre worst job.

I decided after years to make cabbage rolls since our cauliflower plants purchased from our local garden store turned out to be cabbage. There's some Polish term (?) golumpi, haluski, not sure -- just forgot how to do the cabbage although I know the filling. Thanks -- this is how I did it & my brain froze about it. You've refreshed a brain that's losing her Polish heritage.

Gwumpkies and Halupkies are the names I also know these cabbage rolls by but don't hold me to the spellings. I will often use these as a covered dish in the winter if I am going to an affair that calls for a dish. Wow, I can almost smell them cooking as I type even though I am not making them at the moment. lol

We always called them "pigs in a blanket", but used beef instead of the traditional pork. Everyone has thier way of doign those, including the filling. I also use condensed tomato soup instead of tomato or spaghetti sauce.

Found the "terms"....
Golabski: Cabbage Rolls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go%C5%82%C4%85bki

Halujki: Cabbage & Noodles: Sort of like what we called "Chicken Pot Pie"...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halu%C5%A1ky

Altho there's no Polish in my background, many from PA knew how to make these. I assume our ancestors swapped recipes too :). I was lucky to be raised by my Grandparents, who were born in the 1800's. Learned allot of the "old ways".