Choose for this purpose a large, firm cabbage. Take off the outer
leaves, and lay in boiling water ten minutes, then in very cold. Do
this several hours before you are ready to stuff it. When perfectly
cold, bind a broad tape about it, or a strip of muslin, that it may
not fall apart when the stalk is taken out. Remove this with a thin
sharp knife, leaving a hole about as deep as your middle-finger.
Without widening the mouth of the aperture, excavate the centre until
you have room for four or five tablespoonfuls of the force-meat—more,
if the head be large. Chop the bits you take out very small; mix with
some cold boiled pork or ham, or cooked sausage-meat, a _very_ little
onion, pepper, salt, a pinch of thyme, and some bread-crumbs. Fill the
cavity with this, bind a wide strip of muslin over the hole in the top,
and lay the cabbage in a large saucepan with a pint of “pot-liquor”
from boiled beef or ham. Stew gently until very tender. Take out the
cabbage, unbind carefully, and lay in a dish. Keep hot while you add to
the gravy, when you have strained it, pepper, a piece of butter rolled
in flour, and two or three tablespoonfuls rich milk or cream. Boil up,
and pour over the cabbage.
“COLLARDS,” OR CABBAGE-SPROUTS.
Pick over carefully, lay in cold water, slightly salted, half an hour;
shake in a cullender to drain, and put into boiling water, keeping at
a fast boil until tender. A piece of pork seasons them pleasantly.
In this case put the meat on first, adding the greens when it is
parboiled, and cooking them together. Boil in an uncovered vessel.
Drain very well; chop and heap in a dish, laying the meat on top.