I am happy to share with you a recipe I got from my husband’s grandmother, Barbara Buchko. Grandma Barb decided to teach me her Slovak  family “pass-down” recipe, holubky during my engagement to my husband. This stuffed cabbage recipe was taught to Barb when she married her husband, because it was something he ate growing up. My husband ate this growing up, and now she has passed it on to me so it can stay in the family.

My husband loves this recipe and I have learned to appreciate it more and more over the past few years. It is a wonderful comfort food.

Here is Grandma Barb’s “secret” stuffed cabbage recipe that I will someday pass on to my children:

1 lb. ground chuck

1 ¾  cup rice

1 small onion

2 Tbs. salt

3 to 4 slices bacon

1 can diced tomatoes

¼ cup vinegar

1.       Mix meat and salt in a large bowl. Mix well! Grandma Barb taught me to use my hands and not a spoon, to make sure that the salt is mixed in really good.

2.       Add onion and rice in to the meat. Mix well…again, with the hands.

3.       Cut core out of the cabbage.

4.       Par boil the cabbage.

5.       Lift leafs off as they become soft.

6.       Trim the vein (the thick middle part of the top of the leaf that is tough to chew) of the cabbage leaf.

7.       Put meat mix in leaf. Fold over and pull back as you fold over to make a nice tight roll.

8.     Stack rolls up on a plate as you make them.

9. Place cabbage rolls in the bottom of the big pot.

10. Add water, tomatoes and vinegar. Cover and cook for approx. 2 1/2 hours. (More or less, depending on the temp of the stove. Rice should be cooked inside, and cabbage should be soft.)

Serve with buttered French loaf bread.